Cornwall Council leader to be decided at crunch meeting
A meeting will be held later to decide who will run Cornwall Council for the next four years.No party won a majority on the authority at the local elections meaning different groups need to work together in an administration.Reform UK, which won the most seats, has withdrawn from the race after other parties said they would not support them.The Liberal Democrats said they would now seek to work with the Independent group to form a coalition.
The council was left under no overall control after the elections on 1 May and parties have since been in negotiations over who will be in charge. Reform UK won 28 seats - but were still a long way short of the 44 needed for a majority to win votes in the council chamber. However, they have been unable to find a willing coalition partner and accused other parties of "playing politics".
'Party politics'
Councillor Robert Parsonage, Reform UK group leader, said: "They do not want anything to do with Reform UK whatsoever through their own party politics."He admitted he was "disappointed" not to be able to reach an agreement and claimed voters would be unhappy. "It really shows disrespect to the people of Cornwall. I think the voters will look back on this and feel disappointed that the other parties didn't engage with us to take Cornwall forward," he argued.
The Liberal Democrats - who came second in the elections with 26 seats - said they would now seek to form an administration supported by Independents.Councillor Adam Paynter, Independent group leader, refuted Reform's suggestions that other groups had been playing "political games". He explained: "We were happy to speak to all the groups and listen but they [Reform] had no proposals at all. The only party who gave us a proposal were the Liberal Democrats."
Liberal Democrat group leader Councillor Leigh Frost, said his party felt it had to "step into the fray" after Reform's failure to form a coalition. He explained: "Cornwall has some big decisions to make over the next four years with things like the next local plan and devolution."We need a strong and stable administration and we can't leave Cornwall rudderless."What we've lacked in the last four years is that collaborative approach and that's something that I would be really keen to do." Councillors are due to vote on the next leader at a meeting of the full council in Truro on Tuesday.
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