Labour's Peter Soulsby was re-elected as mayor and the party retained its majority on the council, but with a significant loss of 22 seats compared to its position at the previous election in 2019. The Conservatives gained 17 extra seats against the national trend.[1] The Green Party and Liberal Democrats also made gains, with each being represented by three seats.[2]
Labour retained control of Leicester City Council in the 2019 local elections, winning fifty-three councillors on an increased share of the vote.[3] The Liberal Democrats were runners-up, becoming the only opposition party on the council after the wipe-out of the Conservatives. A month later, Labour came top of the polls in the European Parliament election in the city – Leicester having the second-highest Labour vote share in the country, behind only the London Borough of Newham. The Brexit Party narrowly pipped the Liberal Democrats into second place.
In the 2019 general election, Labour consolidated its support in the city by winning all three constituencies with healthy majorities,[4] despite a disappointing general election campaign elsewhere. However, the candidate selection of Claudia Webbe in Leicester East, from a shortlist of one, caused controversy amongst local Labour Party members who were angry at being denied an option of a candidate from the South Asian community, at Webbe's views on the Kashmir conflict, and at the fact that she was a serving councillor in the London Borough of Islington.[5] Long-serving councillor John Thomas resigned from the party, citing the selection of Webbe and the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn,[6] and the Conservatives achieved a swing of 15% in the constituency.
City Mayor Peter Soulsby faced calls to resign by Liberal Democrat leader Nigel Porter during the COVID-19 pandemic after it emerged Soulsby had been breaking lockdown rules to visit his lover.[7] This was in the background of Leicester's COVID cases being amongst the highest in the United Kingdom, with the city being kept in stricter restrictions than the rest of the country for much of the pandemic.
Soulsby was further criticised after Assistant Mayor Mustafa Malik was suspended by the Labour Party after sharing anti-semitic posts on social media but was allowed to retain the Labour whip in the City Council.[8] Councillor Jacky Nangreave was also suspended, after claiming that Keir Starmer was an "agent of Israel", though was later reinstated.[9][10] Additionally, Labour Councillor for Western Ward, Lindsay Broadwell, resigned the Labour whip and sat as an independent citing the toxic atmosphere of the Labour group and dissatisfaction with the party nationally.[11]
Amidst the controversies, the Labour grip on the city began to wane. In the 2021 North Evington By-election, they narrowly held onto a previously safe ward after a 26.5% swing to the Conservatives.[12] A few months later, the Conservatives gained their first representative on the council since the 2019 elections after winning the Humberstone and Hamilton by-election.[13] Winning Conservative candidate Daniel Crewe was soon, in September 2022, joined by Labour defector Deepak Bajaj.[14] However, Crewe later resigned his membership of the Conservative Party following the 2022 mini-budget.[15]
Despite this, Labour continued to do poorly in local by-elections. Labour narrowly held on in a three-way fight at the Evington by-election, clinging on with a twenty-one per cent reduction in the vote share after both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats gained heavily.[16] Another three-way election, the 2022 North Evington by-election, followed, with Labour being relegated to third in a ward that in 2019 it had won with 66.8% of the vote.[17] Sanjay Modhwadia won for the Conservatives, with the Greens some distance behind in second place. There was a further setback when former Council Leader Ross Willmott was suspended by the national Labour Party for membership of an organisation that the party had proscribed.[18]
In spite of these difficulties, Sir Peter Soulsby was re-confirmed as the Labour candidate for the 2023 elections – though the Leicester Mercury noted mixed feelings amongst its readers at this announcement.[19]
However, following the electoral defeats, the Labour Party at national level set up a 'Campaigns Improvement Board' to oversee the local party.[20] The Labour Party National Executive Committee's (NEC) claims that the local Labour Party was beset with "in-fighting, division and no clear vision" was quickly seized upon by political opponents.[21] As a result of the NEC supervision, nineteen local Labour councillors were deselected.[22] The Labour Party was criticised for a disproportionate number of Asian councillors being deselected, with 58% of BAME councillors not re-selected versus just 18% of white councillors[23] while Councillor Stephen Gee quit the party following the process, stating that "Labour no longer supports people with disabilities".[24] After being deselected, many Labour councillors vowed to fight as independents. Additionally, three councillors – Rashmikant Joshi,[25] Paul Westley and Hemant Rae Bhatia –[26] defected to the Conservatives, bringing the total number of Conservative members of the council to five.
To compound Labour's problems, a vote on whether to retain the Mayoral system saw open warfare breakout within the Labour group. The vote, in which City councillors voted to retain the Mayoral system, saw fourteen Labour councillors rebel against the whip amid accusations of bullying and intimidation to force them to vote to retain the mayor.[27] Ultimately, four Labour councillors had the whip suspended[28][29][30] while Councillor Patrick Kitterick defected to the Green Party, claiming that "the Labour Party has changed for the worse" and that "“It seems the party is going down a route where you either unquestioningly agree with the city mayor or you leave. So I'm leaving."[31] His defection gave the Green Party its first seat on the City Council since losing all its seats in the 2015 elections.
Labour launched its campaign, aiming to make Leicester a 'fairer, happier and safer city' by providing extra support for families struggling with the cost-of-living crisis and to invest in more CCTV and street lights. The party also says it seeks to do more to tackle climate change.[32] Labour Mayor Peter Soulsby claimed after the campaign that religion had been 'weaponised' during the election.[33]
The Conservative campaign was focussed on preventing new housing developments, pledging a nature reserve to prevent housing on the city's fringes. The party also pledges to provide free bus travel for schoolchildren and to not raise council tax above inflation.[34]
The Liberal Democrats are campaigning on building 3,000 new affordable homes and offering a referendum on the mayoral system – a position they also put forward at the 2019 elections.[35]
The Green Party announced it was targeting three wards in the election: Castle, where it held seats between 2011 and 2015; Saffron; and North Evington.[36] The party is campaigning to scrap the Mayoral system, pledging a referendum within a year of taking office.[37][38]
22
17
