Anger as Labour councillors blocked from choosing Sunderland leader by party bigwigs in move slammed as 'antidemocratic'

Labour councillors have been left fuming and fearing for democracy after national party bigwigs announced they would be vetting candidates for leader and other senior positions in Sunderland after placing the city’s Labour Group under special measures.

Labour councillors meet each May to vote in a leader, deputy leader and other key positions.

As the Labour has the most councillors in Sunderland, their vote ultimate decides who becomes council leader and deputy council leader, and who takes up other senior posts on the local authority.

Labour councillors were due to meet for the annual post-election meeting on Saturday, May 2, after what was a successful night for the party at the polls in the city.

However, Labour Party chiefs from outside the city have stepped in to overrule the process.

An email from Newcastle-based Labour North, which oversees the party in the region, told councillors the planned meeting on Saturday would be cancelled.

The email invites applications for leader, deputy leader, chief whip, deputy whip, chair, treasurer and secretary of the Sunderland Labour Group by 12noon on Monday, May 6, with interviews taking place on Tuesday and a rescheduled AGM to take place on Wednesday, May 8.

The email states this is because the Sunderland Labour Group has been put under the ‘Campaign Improvement Board’, a scheme set up to ‘support Labour groups that require improvement’.

Labour members have contacted the Echo furious with the decision, which they say is ‘dictatorial’ and raises grave concerns over democracy.

They say voters in Sunderland have chosen their councillors, and it is only right councillors have the full say on who becomes Labour leader - and therefore council leader - in the city.

“We’ve been given no reason why. We’ve asked, and had no response - when that happens, you have to wonder why,” they said.

“Sunderland is a successful council yet we’ve been put under the (national Labour Party’s) ‘Campaign Improvement Board’.

“That was set up for struggling councils like Birmingham, which is effectively bankrupt.

“Sunderland council is bringing millions of investment into the city, the Labour Group here has had a successful election night. And we’re getting no answers as to why it is being done.”

One Labour insider said they feared the party wanted to install its own appointed proxy to rule in Sunderland, which they said was bad news for voters in the city.

“We are elected democratically by the people to serve as councillors, and we then democratically choose our leader. That has now been taken away,” they said.

An email to Labour councillors in Sunderland said the decision had been made by Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) and signed off by its General Secretary, David Evans.

Some in the Labour party locally fear councillors will join or form other political groups as a result.

One insider said party members were angry after having campaigned for Labour’s candidate in the North East Mayoral elections, Kim McGuinness, to then have their choice of local leader taken away.

There are concerns from some in Labour that Sunderland will lose out to Newcastle under the arrangements, and Labour councillors in Wearside not being able to freely choose their own leader has only deepened such fears, the insider said.

Many in the party remain angry that former North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll was blocked from standing for Labour in the North East Mayor election.

He instead ran as an independent, coming second to Ms McGuinness.

One Labour member said the situation in Sunderland had only added to their fears the city could lose out to Newcastle under the new mayoral system.

A Labour Spokesperson said: "Sunderland Labour Group was put on a Campaign Improvement Board in 2022.

"Group members have demonstrated a clear passion to deliver for Sunderland and the purpose of the CIB is to support this aim. 

"We will not be commenting further while the process is ongoing”

Labour’s ‘Campaign Improvement Boards’ have proved controversial.

The grassroots party website LabourList quotes one NEC member as saying “Labour groups are the only people that should have a right to decide their leader’s, not party apparatchiks” and described the plan as “another deeply authoritarian move from Keir Starmer”.

However, another quoted on the site argues the party needs “mechanisms to send in the help” when a Labour council is “failing in service delivery or hits a financial crisis”, adding that “peer intervention and support can be part of turning round local authorities with seemingly intractable problems”.