Parties fail to elect leader after local elections

Colchester City Council has failed to elect a leader of the authority at its first meeting since elections on 7 May.

Liberal Democrat David King was four votes short of being re-elected council leader while Conservative Paul Dundas, who leads the largest party, also failed to win enough support.

The meeting to vote for a council leader has been postponed until next week as no decision could be reached.

No party won a majority and the authority remains in no overall control. Both the Liberal Democrats and Labour, who have been running the city council together, lost seats to Reform and are short of a majority.

King called on councillors to support that coalition in what could be the authority's last year before a planned local government reorganisation to replace all 14 Essex councils with five unitary authorities.

But despite the support of the Greens, King won the support of just 22 councillors and 26 voted against him.

Dundas said: "This council needs a stable strong administration to make sure we get the best deal for Colchester". However, he said that would not happen with "a four or five way coalition".

But he was only backed by 18 councillors with 29 voting against him.

Reform UK, who won their first five seats on Colchester council this month, voted against both leaders.

Labour group leader Julie Young said the situation with six political groups was "quite unprecedented".

Three Labour councillors quit the party and formed a progressive alliance with independent councillor Lesley Scott-Boutell who used to be a Lib Dem.

These four councillors voted against David King. As did Liberal Democrat Sean Kelly - who voted for Conservative Paul Dundas instead.

The parties will now have to continue negotiations with another meeting to be held next week.

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