THURSDAY was one of the most extraordinary days in the history of Worcestershire County Council.
Reform UK was kicked out of power after a year in minority control of the council by a rainbow coalition of Conservatives, Lib Dems, Greens and independents at a full council meeting.
Matt Jenkins of the Green Party was named leader despite a rival challenge by Reform’s Alan Amos, and the Conservatives’ Adam Kent was elected deputy leader as part of the new alliance.
CURVEBALL: New leader Matt Jenkins was thrown a challenge just hours after taking charge of the council (Image: Phil Wilkinson-Jones/LDRS)
For a county that had previously seen two decades of Tory control, with huge majorities throughout, that seemed enough drama for anyone.
But just a few hours later, it emerged that Cllr Kent had been suspended by the Conservative Party, which said it had told him the arrangement “must not go ahead”.
So what does this mean for the council?
Cllr Kent remains deputy leader of the council at this moment in time. A suspension by his party doesn’t change that.
Jo Monk was replaced as Worcestershire’s Reform leader last month by Cllr Amos and suspended by the party last week, but remained leader of the council until she stepped down from the role yesterday morning.
SUSPENDED: Adam Kent’s power-sharing deal has not gone down well at Conservative HQ (Image: Supplied)
Cllr Jenkins described the suspension of Cllr Kent as a “curveball”.
Speaking to the BBC, he said: “Tory HQ should keep out of it – this is a local matter, we’re just trying to do the best for local residents.
“Reform are fighting among themselves and splitting anyway, that’s one of the reasons we thought we had to do this.
“I’m sure we will sort this out and I will be working with everyone else in the cabinet to try and do that.”
The threat hanging over the new coalition is that Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake has said: “The deal will not now go ahead.”
The coalition as it stands is made up of 12 Tory councillors, eight green, seven Lib Dem and several independent councillors (that number grew during yesterday’s meeting as two councillors left Reform).
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Without those 12 Conservatives, it’s unclear whether the coalition would have enough numbers to get votes through council.
Labour aren’t currently part of the alliance. The Local Democracy Reporting Service understands the Labour group, which includes two county councillors, was not involved in any discussions about the power-sharing deal.
Dan Boatright-Greene, leader of the Lib Dem group on the council, said lots of conversations and negotiations are needed to run a council under no overall control.
He said the council would still be able to function as a lot of decisions are taken at cabinet level.
