Labour has ruled Nottingham unchallenged for nearly 40 years
Nottingham Labour has controlled Nottingham City Council since 1988(Image: Joseph Raynor/Nottingham Post)
You could barely hear yourself think in May 2023 as Labour victory after Labour victory was announced at the Harvey Hadden Sports Village – each triumph prompting a volume boost from an already-raucous crowd.
A significant number of long-serving Nottingham city councillors had stood down before the 2023 election and many of those celebrating were about to sit on the Council House benches for the first time.
Newbie naivety may have partly contributed to the Harvey Hadden cheeriness, but it was to be dashed within months by a succession of significant challenges for the city.
Alongside death and taxes, Labour’s control of Nottingham City Council has become one of life’s certainties for the past few decades.
The last time a party other than Labour ran the authority was in 1988 and, although a significant opposition group was created by the 1991 election, the number of non-Labour councillors at the city has been pretty small ever since 1995. But times are changing.
I argued back in late 2025 that Nottingham Labour was facing its biggest crisis in nearly 40 years of unchallenged rule with the formation of the breakaway Nottingham People’s Alliance group.
Nottingham Labour in a cheerier mood at the last Nottingham City Council election in 2023(Image: Joseph Raynor/Reach PLC)
That breakaway, alongside some Labour defections, actually means that Nottingham City Council currently has its biggest number of opposition councillors since 1995.
Although the defectors said that their movement marked the “beginning of the end” for Nottingham Labour, such predictions from politicians – and indeed from journalists like myself – can only be truly put to the test at the ballot box.
At the time of writing, it looked like that test would not come until May 2027. Yet a councillor’s low attendance record looks set to change all that.
Councillor Nadia Farhat, elected as one of two Labour councillors for the Leen Valley ward in 2023 before quitting the party over Keir Starmer’s stance on Gaza, has not attended a meeting for six months.
The rules mean that a by-election is now set for Leen Valley and the most recent results would normally make it a Labour shoo-in.
No other party than Labour has won in this ward since 2011, when the party convincingly knocked the two Liberal Democrat incumbents out.
Labour’s vote share has also been increasing in the area at each election since 2011 and, at the 2023 elections, both councillors were elected with huge shares of the vote.
Yet the years since 2023 have not been easy for Nottingham Labour. The council tried to wage war with its network of community centres and, after a Nottingham Post campaign on the issue, many have survived that could have otherwise fallen.
Most notably, the city council declared itself effectively bankrupt in late 2023 and though politicians even today continue to bicker over the semantics of whether or not Nottingham truly was bankrupt – the fact remains that the issuing of a Section 114 notice ushered in a very financially straightened time for our city.
Government-appointed commissioners have just left and Nottingham Labour now says it is turning things around – with a multi-million-pound package of investment for the coming year and pledges ranging from the cost of living to turning the Old Market Square fountains back on.
Kirsty Jones delivers a speech as the Nottingham People’s Alliance party is launched(Image: Joseph Raynor/Nottingham Post)
Even though things may be turning a corner, will Labour’s voters feel disillusioned by a mixture of tough-to-swallow local measures during the bankruptcy period alongside the national party’s controversial position on issues like Gaza?
That disillusionment may once have translated into those on the left staying at home, faced as they were in most wards with alternatives of either the Conservatives or the Liberal Democrats. The problem Nottingham Labour now faces is a real opposition threat in the shape of both the aforementioned Nottingham People’s Alliance and the Green Party.
Even more problematically for Labour, there are reports that the Nottingham People’s Alliance will allow the Green Party an unchallenged run for left-wing votes in the seat.
One opposition party figure I spoke to in recent days, in spite of all the above, still confidently predicted a Labour victory in Leen Valley. Yet, even if it is still victory, party figures will be keenly looking to see if they can still win with as strong a vote share in what should be a solid Labour area.
A significant slippage, even in the face of a victory on paper, could still spell trouble for the main elections in May 2027, when control of the council will be up for grabs.
How those elections will look will also be determined by the government’s impending decision on a redrawing of the political map which could radically alter Nottingham’s boundaries.
The 2027 elections for the first time could see voters in places like Arnold and West Bridgford choosing councillors for an expanded Nottingham authority.
So much is up in the air at the moment in Nottingham politics, but the government’s announcement expected this week on Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) will finally give Nottingham Labour a firm idea of where they will be fighting in next year’s elections. The Leen Valley by-election will then show what chance they have of winning those fights.