Pat Hackett elected as new leader of Wirral Labour group

The long Bank Holiday weekend has come and gone, and now things are beginning to appear at least slightly clearer over how the troubled authority might look over the coming year.

Although most of these issues will be thrashed out at Wirral council’s annual meeting next week, part of which will take the form of a hustings, Labour, the party who lost control of the authority, has chosen its preferred leader and model.

It will see Cllr Hackett succeed Phil Davies to become leader, overlooking two deputies in the form of ex-cabinet members Cllrs Anita Leech and Janette Williamson.

The group chair and vice-chair will be Cllrs Tony Cottier and Steve Foulkes respectively, while Cllr Jo Bird will be secretary and Cllr Tony Norbury treasurer.

Cllrs Sam Frost and Sharon Jones will be junior whips, while Cllr Tom Usher will be training officer.

Phil Davies is still technically the leader of the administration until the council’s annual meeting on May 14, despite no longer being a councillor or elected.

A Wirral Council insider described the situation as “fluid” and a number of things could now happen.

That buys the parties a little time and over the Bank Holiday weekend, Labour members met to elect their new group leader.

The next step in deciding who is to run the council will come at that annual meeting later this month.

There as expected, Labour could announce its intention to run a minority council.

In practice, that would mean it is able to form a cabinet, and will be able to pass lots of decisions through that medium.

But in terms of policies that require the approval of full council, including the budget and the biggest, most important decisions including the green belt, it could prove far more difficult to win support of rival parties.

That’s even more so the case with a thriving Green group, and Conservatives and Lib Dems elated with increasing their seat share.

There are two other possible options from there, however.

The first would involve Labour forming a coalition with another party, meaning it would share the cabinet.

With the group two seats short of a majority, coalitions could be formed with any one of the other groups, with the Lib Dems (six seats), Green (three) and Independents (three) most likely.

A third, probably more unlikely option would be all those other parties forming their own coalition – a move that would see the Conservatives, Lib Dems, Greens and Independents rule a multi-coloured administration.