The Labour Party should apologise for the unnecessary cost of by-elections in Brighton and Hove within a year of the local elections

Two by-elections are to be held in Brighton on 2nd May, the same day as the election for the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner. The by-elections in Queen’s Park ward and Kemptown ward come following the resignations of Chandni Mistry and Bharti Gajjar, the so-called Leicester Two who were thrown out of the Labour Party following allegations that they don’t actually live in Brighton. A referral alleging electoral fraud was made to Sussex Police who have recently said no action will be taken over the claims.

Labour’s candidate in the Queen’s Park by-election, Camilla Gauge, with ward councillor Tristram Burden (Photo credit: Tristram Burden X / Twitter)

Council leader, Labour’s Bella Sankey, told the Argus that she was “overjoyed” by the decision of the two councillors to “do the right thing and step down” and said they should “never have been selected as candidates”.  She said: “The people of Queen’s Park and Kemp Town can now elect new councillors that will listen to their needs and serve them properly.”

I’m not sure if “overjoyed” is the right word for it. This whole mess is the making of the Labour Party who really should be offering an apology for the unnecessary cost of two by-elections. A by-election, depending on the size of the ward, costs between £12,000 and £15,000. These by-elections, together with the one held in December in South Portslade, will bring the total to three by-elections caused by Labour since last May’s local elections, at a cost of between £36,000 and £45,000. What a waste of public money at a time when cuts are being made to essential service.

The apology should come from the national or regional Labour Party who took over the selection of candidates in Brighton and Hove. Perhaps the Labour Party should be offering both an apology and an offer to reimburse Brighton and Hove City Council for this unnecessary cost.

One person who should not apologise is Bella Sankey who was not the Leader of the Labour Group at the time of the selections and the election. She must be so frustrated by this and other decisions made by the regional Labour Party, such as not enabling someone with her qualities to be the Party’s candidate in Brighton Pavilion. 

As for the by-elections themselves, Labour should hold on comfortably to both seats. In Camilla Gauge, who is standing in Queen’s Park ward, Labour has chosen an exceptional candidate who will bring experience and great ability to the Council, not least her expertise in tackling violence against women and girls. As far as I am aware, the Party is yet to select its candidate in Kemptown ward.

The Greens have traditionally had some success in Queen’s Park. How close they come to challenging Labour will provide an indication as to the mountain the party has yet to climb in recovering from its worst election defeat in 20 years in Brighton and Hove.

As for the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, they have about as much chance of winning as a lame and blind donkey would have had winning the Gold Cup at the Cheltenham Festival this last week.

Update: 4.45pm 16/03/2024 Theresa Mackey has been selected as Labour’s candidate for the Kemptown by-election.

Has Labour sabotaged its own campaigns in Brighton Pavilion and in East Worthing & Shoreham?

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 15th November 2023)

Following the King’s Speech, there is speculation now as to when the general election will be called. Three dates have been suggested: May, the early autumn, or December 2024. The election must be held by January 2025.

My guess is that Rishi Sunak will go for late September or early October. An April poll would be too early for any Budget giveaway to have any effect. December would mean very dark evenings, although a low turnout might benefit the Conservatives. The reason I believe it will be September or October is because any tax cut or give-away bonanza in the spring Budget will have had time to settle in.  However, any such election gimmick will probably be too little and too late for this walking-dead Conservative government.

In Brighton and Hove, the early autumn date would mean that students will not have returned in time to register to vote, something that would seriously disadvantage the Greens in Brighton Pavilion who rely on a large student turnout.

Previously, I have forecast that Labour would win seven seats in Sussex (including taking Brighton Pavilion from the Greens). I have predicted the same number of seats for the Conservatives with the Liberal Democrats winning two. This forecast is now being compromised by the inexplicable actions of the Labour Party which appears to be doing its utmost not to win in East Worthing and Shoreham, and in Brighton Pavilion.

In the Worthing seat, not a single local candidate has been shortlisted. The party has denied party members the options of selecting as their candidate either of two respected Labour councillors, Cat Arnold and Carl Walker, such a shortsighted decision. Labour has performed phenomenally well to gain control of the Borough Council, yet the party seems not to want to build on its success in this constituency. Meanwhile, in Worthing West, the Labour leader of the council, Dr Becky Cooper, has been shortlisted. The party would be foolish not to select her as its candidate as she stands far-and-away the best chance of being elected.

Labour has never won either Worthing seat but the migration of families from Brighton has changed the demographics, just as happened previously in Hove and Portslade, once the safest-of-safe Conservative seats, now solidly Labour.

The Green Party’s Siân Berry who has hit the ground running in Brighton Pavilion

Meanwhile, in Brighton Pavilion, the Greens selected Siân Berry several months ago. She has hit the ground running and her name recognition is increasing. Labour, on the other hand, is dragging its feet. Originally the selection was due to take place in September. Two contenders, Eddie Izzard and Tom Gray, have already announced that they are seeking the nomination. Even if the selection was to take place now, the problem for Labour is it would run into the Christmas period and its candidate, whoever that might be, will have lost three months of invaluable campaigning time. Instead, they will have to wait until the new year, in the depths of winter, before launching their campaign. This would be less of a problem if the election is in September or October but might prove to be a fatal error if Sunak goes for May 2nd or 9th.

There is still no word from the leader of the Council, Bella Sankey: will she be seeking the nomination? The timing of the decision by Caroline Lucas to stand down has not helped Bella. As a relatively new councillor, and having been leader for just over six months, it might appear that Bella is being opportunist by becoming the candidate and subsequently MP, jumping from one opportunity to the next to get into Parliament. 

But if she doesn’t put herself forward now, which would be a shame, the opportunity to become an MP in the City she loves will have passed. By 2029, whoever is elected in 2024, be it Siân Berry or one of the other less-than-convincing Labour contenders, will have established themselves as the sitting MP and they will be hard, if not impossible, to shift. By 2029, Bella won’t be the exciting new kid on the block but she will be burdened by the failings of her administration, a fate that inevitably befalls every leader of the Council.

And by 2029, Labour will not be enjoying the bumper lead it currently has in the polls, thanks to the ever-increasing shambles of a government being led by Rishi Sunak. Rather, a sense of sheer disappointment and bewildered incomprehension will have set in as the Starmer government fails to provide the improvements and the housing that the country needs, unlike the Blair government which on the domestic front in 1997 things really did get better. 

The Labour Party could learn lessons from the 2016 Trump campaign

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 13th September 2023)

The recent sight of European Union flags being handed out and waved at the Last Night of the Proms was a reminder, if any was needed, that many ‘Remain’ voters have not got over the Referendum result. They were incredulous that ‘Leave’ even had any chance of success, and are still in traumatised by the result.

My advice to them is to get over it and learn lessons. The referendum wasn’t the only shock. The liberal left didn’t think for a moment that Trump could become President in 2016, nor that the charlatan Boris Johnson could become Prime Minister, let alone winning a handsome majority and capturing the ‘Red Wall’ working class north. And now complacency is setting in about the 2024 general election.

Labour will more than likely win and its lacklustre, inconsistent, U-Turning leader, Sir Keir Starmer, will become prime minister. Yes, it is more than likely but it is definitely no certainty.

Labour activists, especially in areas like Brighton and Hove where the party is riding high following the local election results, is confident that it will win all three seats. I have written before that this will depend on its choice of candidate in Brighton Pavilion. Choose well, perhaps selecting Council leader Bella Sankey, and the odds will definitely be in Labour’s favour. Choose badly, perhaps a non-local candidate, and one advantage over the Greens will be lost allowing Siân Berry a realistic chance of holding Caroline Lucas’ seat.

Labour nationally is doing a great job in dampening expectations and sucking any semblance of enthusiasm from its campaign. I squirm with embarrassment and shout at the television every time a Stepford Frontbencher is asked what Labour will do in government. They are all on message in critiquing the latest government fiasco – they have been given ample opportunities to hone their attacks.  But they lose credibility and support every time they reply with their hollowed-out, lifeless eyes and robotic answers about needing to see what the economic circumstances will be once in government. 

Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump and Steve Bannon

The Rishi Sunak shine – that he isn’t Theresa May, Boris Johnson or Liz Truss – has worn off. But don’t be fooled that there isn’t someone in the wings waiting to do a Trump. Trump’s main strategist in the run up to polling day in 2016 was Steve Bannon who has said that one of Trump’s advantages over Hillary Clinton was that he spoke in a voice that did not sound political. … Clinton spoke like the trained politician she was, that her tempo was overly practiced, and even when telling the truth, he said, she sounded like she was lying to you.

That’s exactly how I feel about many Labour frontbenchers. Perhaps those of us who identify as being on the left of British politics should be grateful that the right isn’t led by someone with the seductive brass of Johnson, the mischievous anti-politician rhetoric of Nigel Farage, and the personal appeal of Georgia Malone.

A problem for the left is that its electoral base is well-established, feeding off formulaic touchstones like the NHS, education, and LGBT and other minority rights. But that support, as we saw in 2019, is soft, with Red Wall voters flocking to Johnson’s populist appeal about getting Brexit done and getting control of our borders. Many of these voters will not return to Labour not least because the party has no credible, convincing alternatives on these and other issues that people are concerned about.

Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said that “there’s not a single hidden Hillary voter in the entire country. They’re all out and about.”  She coined the phrase “the hidden Trump voter”.  Labour has traditionally relied on what proved to be the hidden Johnson voters, ignoring their communities, turning a blind-eye to poorly performing NHS Trusts and corrupt Labour councils. They took these voters for granted, focusing instead on the politics and sensitivities of the metropolitan elites in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Brighton. 

But perhaps the worst aspect of the approach by Labour is that it doesn’t offer the hope that Blair provided in 1997 that “things can only get better.” We all know that the country is in a mess and that the economy is up a certain creek without a paddle. But by sticking to Conservative tax plans and spending restrictions, it looks as if the Labour elite is comfortable with managing the further decline of public services as long as they are in office. But without offering hope or convincing answers about what they will do, they might not make it into government.

The decline of Pride and a question about its future

Hats off to everyone who braved the elements to take part in yesterday’s Pride parade. I saw many photos of Labour councillors, activists and three of their MPs, all of whom looked like drowned rats! By the time they passed me in London Road they had dried off … a bit.

I didn’t see any of the Green councillors, although there were photos of them on social media. The photo posted by their sole MP, Caroline Lucas, was from a previous year. I didn’t see any Conservatives, in person or on social media. OK, I have to admit that there are so few Green and Conservative councillors that it would be easy to miss them.

Wannabe MPs, Sian Berry (selected for Brighton Pavilion by the Green Party) and Eddie Izzard (a Labour hopeful for Brighton Pavilion) were there, of course. So too was the Leader of the Council, Bella Sankey, who is increasingly being tipped as the favourite for the Labour nomination in Pavilion. There were several photos of Izzard purposefully standing alongside her. Awkward, non?

Notwithstanding the atrocious weather and the rail disruption, the numbers were well down on previous years. Bystanders were three or four deep along London Road, but largely absent in other places where they previously would have been 15 to 20 deep.  

Pride 2019 when there were really large crowds (and nice weather!)

While people were enjoying the parade, there were several things about it , that I didn’t like, not least how commercial it has become.  There were organisations taking part that should have no place in such a parade. There was one leading national housing association that has been exposed time and again for failing its tenants, leaving them to live in damp and squalid conditions for years on end. They want to be associated with Pride but clearly have no pride in the quality of their homes and the wellbeing of their tenants.

I wonder whether there needs to be a rethink about Pride given what it has become. Has it run its course? My Argus column this coming Wednesday looks at its history, what it has become and answers this question about the future. 

Who will succeed Caroline Lucas as MP for Brighton Pavilion?

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 14th June 2023)

Caroline Lucas has, deservedly, received fulsome praise following her decision to stand down at the next election as the Member of Parliament for Brighton Pavilion. She enjoys huge respect across the political spectrum and her departure will be a loss for Brighton and Hove. She will, no doubt, continue to make her mark on public debate and policy as she, as Tony Benn said when he stood down from Parliament, spends “more time devoted to politics and more freedom to do so.”

For thirteen years Caroline has been the lone standard bearer for her party in the Commons. She has twice been the Green Party’s Leader as well as being the most dedicated constituency MP.

The strengths and stature of Caroline, the Greens’ greatest asset, could now become its biggest problem. Who do they have in their ranks who can live up to her qualities. By all comparisons, whoever is chosen to stand for Brighton Pavilion, will be a poor imitation of the real thing, and likely to lose the seat.

Of course the Greens will say that they have an abundance of talent and that there are many capable, keen and available to succeed Caroline. They would say that, wouldn’t they?  The Greens locally have been blessed with a generous abundance of mediocracy, and nationwide they will be looking for talent in the shallow end of U.K. politics.

Should the Greens try to parachute someone in from outside, unless it is someone of extraordinary abilities and a well-known name, they will surely lose. And, anyway, which celebrity candidate would consider for a moment a four or five-year sentence in solitary confinement in that prison known as the House of Commons?

Had Caroline stood for re-election, she would have been re-elected albeit with a much reduced majority (as I said in this column a few weeks back). The reduced majority would be caused, in part, by the inevitable swing to Labour (notwithstanding its lacklustre and increasingly authoritarian leader, Sir Keir Starmer). There is also the Greens’ track record while in office in Brighton and Hove as well as in Scotland, and their alienation of large numbers of women and male sympathisers over their lack of support for single-sex facilities for women.

I cannot see how the Greens can hope to hold onto the seat at the general election. Attention then turns to who the Labour candidate will be. One name that has been mentioned is that of the new Leader of the Council, Bella Sankey. But Caroline’s decision to stand down at this forthcoming election has come too soon for Cllr Sankey. There is a view, which I have previously expressed and which is shared by some in the Labour Group on the City Council, that Bella must see though the commitment she has made to the people of Brighton and Hove by serving as leader for the full four-years of this administration.

There are those, new to electoral politics who, flushed by the success of having been elected for the first time, immediately stand for leadership positions and then, before being tested, seek a parliamentary seat. Notwithstanding this, I have been very impressed by Bella Sankey’s first few weeks as Leader of the Council. She has communicated well, not made unnecessary changes designed merely to consolidate her control, and has brought forward talent from both old and new councillors. In time, she will make an excellent MP, even a Minister, but the vacancy in Brighton Pavilion has come one election cycle too soon.

Another possibility to be Labour’s candidate is Nancy Platts who must be one of the unluckiest politicians of our age – standing unsuccessfully in Brighton Pavilion against Caroline Lucas in 2010, then narrowly losing out in Brighton Kemptown in 2015, before losing the leadership on the Council following the implosion of the Labour Group through no fault of her own. It would be fitting and proper if she was to become the next MP for Brighton Pavilion. 

Nancy is well-liked, has a good reputation and would make a first rate MP. However, she is probably unacceptable to Supreme Leader Starmer because of her close association with Jeremy Corbyn when he was Labour’s leader and she was his trade union liaison officer. Labour’s Achilles Heal could be the sacrifice of talent in the pursuit of ‘purity’. Nancy could be a case in point.

As for the Conservatives, hell will freeze over before they, once again, win Brighton Pavilion. Perhaps they could put up a name, a big name. It would have to be a very big name capable of defying all electoral odds.  Who knows, following his petulant resignation last Friday as the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, one Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, might soon be looking for a return to the Commons.

Is there a way back for the Greens and Conservatives in Brighton and Hove?

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 24th May 2023)

Politics is cyclical. Those who are on the up should remember that this never lasts, and those who are currently suffering at the hands of the electorate will, in most cases, bounce back.

While the Greens enjoyed success in Lewes, Wealden, Mid Suffolk and elsewhere, in Brighton and Hove the party has just experienced its worse-ever setback, but activists should not give up. They have the potential to recover and to become, once again, a force in local politics. But they must change.

One criticism of the Green administration was that it was too focused on national and international issues while failing to get things right locally. The competent delivery of local services  should have been its first priority, but in Brighton and Hove public toilets were closed, weeds grew tall on the pavements, tagging and graffiti blighted the city, and bins were not always emptied. These were just a few of its failures.

So having heavily lost the local elections, I anticipated a change in tone from the seven-member official opposition. However, the new Leader of the Greens on the City Council, Steve Davis, someone I have praised previously in this column, used his first column in The Argus to talk about everything other than local issues. He wrote about the cost of the Coronation and the new repressive powers given to police to clamp down on demonstrators, but nothing about what the Greens would do in opposition on the City Council. Only his last paragraph made reference to the council, saying that “first and foremost in my mind is that even on a local council we need to ensure that protest is permitted.”

The issues he has focused on are for Parliament where the Greens are represented exceptionally well by Caroline Lucas, their sole MP who represents Brighton Pavilion. Caroline has noticeably not rushed to defend the record of her Green colleagues on the City Council, concentrating rightly on national issues, including the funding of local authorities. Perhaps she hasn’t wanted to be associated, understandably, with failure.

Caroline remains the party’s greatest asset. She continues to enjoy popular support, notwithstanding the failings of her Green colleagues on the City Council.  She had a majority of 19,940 at the 2019, and has seen it increase in every election since she was first elected in 2010 with a majority of just 1,252.

When I spoke to friends and neighbours before the recent local elections, many said that there was no way that they would ever vote Green again. But when I asked them about Caroline Lucas, the response was quite different, although her lack of support for women in the face of attacks by ‘trans rights activists’ is costing her support, mainly amongst women but also men.

It is not just the new Green leader whose Argus article focused on national politics. The new Leader of the Council, Labour’s Bella Sankey, used her first column to say she has got straight down to work, but then talked about meeting Labour Leader, Sir Keir Starmer, to discus the cost-of-living crisis and what a Labour government might do (unless Sir Keir does another of his now regular U-turns). 

Over the next four years Bella Sankey (inset) must focus 100% of sorting out the City’s problems (Photo credit: The Argus)

Bella Sankey has enormous talent and could be just what Brighton needs.  She needs to focus 100% on sorting out the current mess. I can understand that being a new rising star might be intoxicating, but she needs to keep her feet firmly on the ground in Brighton and Hove. I am sure there will be attractive offers for her to stand in newly-winnable parliamentary seats elsewhere in the south east, but she should publicly rule this out as she has been elected to do a job in this city for the next four years. Leading the City Council will be an all-consuming commitment and should never be seen as a mere stepping stone to Parliament.

One of the six-member Conservative Group, Samer Bagaeen, in his first column in The Argus, focused on local issues, laying the blame for many of the City’s ills at the door of Labour, writing that a whole raft of decisions were actually made by previous Labour administrations, such as stopping the use of pesticides to control the growth of pavement weeds, and to bring in-house various outsourced services including the maintenance of public toilets and the Council housing repair service where there is now a backlog of around 10,000 jobs.

Of course Cllr Bagaeen focuses on local issues, anything to draw attention away from the tragic comedy of errors of the Conservative government, their crashing of the economy, and the cost-of-living crisis.

For the Conservatives, the way back lies in a period of effective national opposition while the party decides whether it wishes to become, once again, a party of government or to remain a national joke.

The Greens lost in Brighton and Hove because they were poor communicators, poor administrators, and exceptionally poor politicians

(This item fist appeared in the Brighton Argus on 10th May 2023)

My forecast for last week’s local elections in Brighton was met with derision, not least by Green Party councillors. Even Labour activists felt I had been over-optimistic on their behalf.  Few others predicted Labour topping 30 seats. I had said that Labour would win 31 seats, the Greens 12, the Conservatives 8, and that there would be three independents.

Graphic: Election Maps (@electionmapsuk)

In the event, Labour secured 38 seats, the Greens seven, Conservatives six, and three independents. Few anticipated the rejection of the Greens by the voters on such a massive and humiliating scale. 

It was particularly bizarre, that even in the days before polling, some Greens thought that they would remain the largest party, and one or two felt that they might even gain their first overall majority. How could the party have been so out-of-touch, arrogant and tone-deaf to the mood in the city? 

So why did it go so terribly wrong for the Greens? Running the Council, they were poor communicators, poor administrators, and exceptionally poor politicians. A narrative had been created around them, mostly justifiable, pointing in one direction electorally: to the door.

That narrative included one of indifference to the problems of the city, the closure of public toilets, weeds on the pavements, graffiti, the dirty state of the city, the treatment of mayoral-hopeful Dawn Barnett, traffic, an unnecessary flight to a climate summit, and the administration’s perceived focus on national and international issues when they weren’t getting things done at home. 

I have no doubt that most Greens were hard-working and much of what they did was well-intentioned. Their time in office was marred by the global pandemic, the financial crisis and crippling cuts from central government. What they needed to do was to demonstrate that they were first-rate politicians rather than self-righteous when justifiably criticised.

When, over the last year, I have written about these things in my Argus column, I have been told that the Green councillors don’t bother reading what I write. That was their prerogative but they should not have ignored the many other voices saying that they were getting things so very badly wrong and on so many issues.

Two final observations. I am always sorry when hard-working and long-standing councillors, such as Dee Simson, Steve Bell and Dawn Barnett, get defeated. I was sorry that Leo Litman and Siriol Hugh-Jones lost their seats. Leo is someone who brought humour to his role and to the Council chamber, and Siriol took her role as Co-chair of Housing particularly seriously, showing an ability to work across political divides.

The second observation was the extraordinary vote secured by the independent Peter Atkinson and topping the poll in North Portslade, possible the only cloud on Labour’s horizon (and a result I did forecast along with the election of two Independents, Bridget Fishleigh and Mark Earthey, in Rottingdean and West Saltdean).

As for Labour, having secured the largest-ever majority in Brighton and Hove, they now have the ability to impose, without hindrance, their will on the Council. However, they will face huge challenges and, given their mandate, have very high expectations placed on them.

The Labour Group should avoid making some elementary mistakes. It should not rush into making changes in how the Council is run, at least until the very large number of new councillors and its new leadership have a better understanding as to how things work. It should resist the temptation to reintroduce a cabinet-style of administration. That would marginalise the majority of its own councillors and the few remaining opposition members. 

With such a majority, another temptation will be to ignore talent in the opposition. To do so would disadvantage the Council and shortchange the people of Brighton and Hove. Labour can and should be magnanimous in victory. 

The three independent councillors, for example, have a great deal to offer and it would be naive and foolish not to harness what they have to offer. For example, Bridget Fishleigh, given her expertise in procurement, should be encouraged to serve on the Asset Management Board. Mark Earthey is an expert in green, renewable energy and general sustainability, and he should serve on the Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee. Peter Atkinson has a passion for and extensive knowledge of housing. Should Labour overlook these assets, it would immediately be replicating the behaviour of its Green predecessor.

I am encouraged by a tweet from the new Leader of the Council, Bella Sankey, who said: “We’ve united our City. Rejecting the nastiness of the out of touch Tory Government. Issuing a damning verdict of the uselessness & hypocrisy of the Green record. Offering hope, vision & unity. We’re ready to lead. I would urge magnanimity in victory.”

Actions will validate these fine words. I wish the new administration well so please don’t set off on the wrong foot.

Lessons that Bella Sankey and Labour can learn from Bill Randall and the 2011 Green Administration

The incoming Labour administration has a lot in common with the first Green administration when they were first elected in 2011, although Labour enjoys a substantial majority, something the Greens never enjoyed. In common are the number of new, inexperienced councillors. At least Labour 2023 has some members who have experience of chairing main committees. Hopefully this experience will be utilised to the full.

Bill Randall (right) with Lloyd Russell-Moyle MP and Trevor Muten (who was elected as a Labour councillor on Thursday)

Their respective leaders, Bill Randall in 2011 and Bella Sankey today, both have experience outside the council, but neither had or has experience of running a local authority. Bella Sankey would be well advised to draw on the leadership skills demonstrated by Bill Randall, and avoid the errors made by the Greens when they formed their first administration.

A lesson in good practice relates to the Living Wage. This was a major commitment in the Green’s 2011 manifesto and a cause close to the heart of Bill Randall. He recognised that, elsewhere, the idea of a living wage had been viewed with some suspicion by the business community.  Bill had the wisdom to approach the Chamber of Commerce to ask its then President, Julia Chanteray, to chair the Living Wage Commission. Today the Chamber continues to run the Living Wage Campaign locally, the only example anywhere in the U.K. of a Chamber doing so.

True leadership is the ability to inspire people, not just one’s own supporters, and align them behind one’s cause. Bill’s decision to involve the Chamber is an example of first-rate leadership.  Today there is wide recognition that a living wage is good for business, good for job retention, and good for morale.

Sadly, Bill Randall (himself ‘Old Labour’) only served one year as Leader of the Council. The Greens might have fared better had he, or someone with his talent, been leader in later years.

(As an aside, one of the few things about the Living Wage in Brighton and Hove that disappoints me is that the City Council still awards contracts to organisations that do not pay a living wage. It is a contradiction and I hope that the new Labour administration will change the council’s procurement practice in this regard. The Greens failed to rectify this and were also shamefully collusive in the failed attempt to award a bargain-basement residential mental health contract to a northern-based charity, St John of God).

A second lesson from the 2011 Green administration, one for Labour to avoid, is not to put people in influential positions who have neither the experience nor the competence to run complex departments and council functions. The Greens elected some people to prominent positions because they were popular within certain factions of the Green Party, and in many cases not the most competent. Bill Randall, in his one year as Council Leader, must have been frustrated by not having the best talent serving alongside him. 

Hopefully Bella Sankey will ensure that the most competent members of the Council will be allowed to serve and not just those who are merely true loyalists to the Great Leader in Westminster. This includes those not necessarily in the Labour Group. In Wednesday’s Argus I will be suggesting that “the three independent councillors have a great deal to offer and it would be naive and foolish not to harness what they have to offer. 

“Bridget Fishleigh, given her expertise in procurement, should be encouraged to serve on the Asset Management Board. Mark Earthey is an expert in green, renewable energy and general sustainability, and he should serve on the Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee. Peter Atkinson has a passion for and extensive knowledge of housing. Should Labour overlook these assets, it would immediately be replicating the behaviour of its Green predecessor.”

I also urge Bella Sankey not to tinker with the governance structures until she and her fellow councillors have gained a better understanding on how things actually work.

Finally, a good place for Bella to start, as a new and inexperienced councillor, would be to meet with the likes of Bill Randall to draw on the wisdom and experience that he and others have.