Independents 'put politics aside' in coalition

An independent group of councillors said they have "put the politics aside" to come together with the Liberal Democrats and Greens to run Birmingham City Council.

Lib Dem Roger Harmer was elected leader of the authority last week, with his party forming a minority administration with the other two parties.

The city's cabinet positions were revealed on Friday, with the posts all shared between the coalition partners.

Responding to those decisions, a Reform UK spokesperson said the party was "completely frozen out" from the allocation of roles, despite being the largest group on the authority, due to an agreement between the Conservatives and others.

Councillor Jex Parkin, Reform leader in Birmingham, said: "The Green-dominated coalition have observed the Tories' weak performance in opposition over the past 14 years and decided they'd like the same cushy treatment.

"All roles have been handed to the smallest opposition party, in a last minute stitch-up to shut Reform out."

A spokesperson for Reform added they were committed to using their new position as the main opposition to hold the city's administration to account and to stand up for residents.

Following the May elections, the party ruled itself out of controlling the authority, stating no one was willing to work with them.

Councillor Harris Khaliq, of the Better Birmingham Independent Group, said coalition partners have "put the politics aside" and that residents had voted for change and "deserved better".

"We've put it all aside and we've come together and we have formed the administration as that is what the most important thing was," he added.

"That is what we've set ourselves up to do... we are now looking forward to delivering on those promises that we campaigned for, collectively."

Khaliq, the new cabinet member for city operations and digital, said the way Reform had campaigned on "divisive" politics led to them being "unable to be worked with by anybody".

"It was a clearer message that Reform didn't want to work with anybody and nobody wanted to work with Reform," he told BBC Radio WM.

Speaking about the city's long running bin strike, the Ward End councillor said he wanted to "restore the city to a cleaner place" and a deal to settle the dispute needed to be made.

"It's now time for us to get serious to settle with Unite and to make sure that a deal is the right deal that doesn't leave the residents of Birmingham short-changed," he said.

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