MEHBOOB Khan was elected to lead Kirklees Council for four years last night – and immediately announced he would volunteer for re-election after just 12 months.
The surprise move undermines a Government plan to make Kirklees change the way its run.
Ministers had forced the council to abandon its old system, where the leader had to be re-elected by fellow councillors every May.
Instead Kirklees was yesterday supposed to adopt the “strong leader” system, where one councillor is elected for a four-year term.
All parties on the council had opposed the change, which was forced on Kirklees by the previous Labour Government.
Immediately after winning election to a four-year term as council leader last night, Clr Khan said: “I will put myself before council for re-election annually. I believe this is in the interest of fairness.”
Later the Greenhead Labour man told the Examiner: “I’ve been elected by my fellow councillors to work on a number of ambitions which we share and I think I should be held to account on those.
“We opposed the proposal from the previous Government to change the system because we thought it was working well.”
Clr Khan added that his decision to volunteer for re-election meant changes to the system of running Kirklees were now “very minimal”.
Yesterday’s monthly council meeting at Huddersfield Town Hall was the first since the local election on May 6.
The poll left Labour with 24 seats on the 69-strong council, followed by the Lib Dems on 20, the Conservatives with 19 and the Greens on four. There are two independent councillors.
Clr Khan, who has led the council for the last 18 months, told yesterday’s meeting his party had “the moral mandate” to carry on after winning two extra seats at this month’s election.
He added: “The Labour group believes we will able to work with other groups to ensure we put the interests of the residents of Kirklees first.
“Local government faces the greatest challenge in its modern history. This requires an approach in Kirklees to protect services and jobs wherever possible.”
Lib Dem leader Clr Kath Pinnock said her party would work with Labour to deal with the spending squeeze.
The Cleckheaton woman said: “We know there will be serious reductions in local government spending. Our party’s priorities will be to mitigate the effect of the recession, ensure fair access to education and tackle health inequalities.”
The Conservatives were the only party to vote against Clr Khan as council leader.
Clr Robert Light, who heads the Tories on Kirklees, said: “The new politics we’ve seen from Nick Clegg and David Cameron is about hope and honesty and empowering people. We see no commitment from Clr Khan to this.
“Labour have ignored huge sections of our community in this council and that’s not a way Kirklees should be run.”
Clr Andrew Cooper, leader of the Greens on Kirklees, told the council his party’s relationship with Labour had improved. The Newsome man said: “A few years ago it was unlikely I would have voted for Mehboob Khan but things change.”
Yesterday’s Kirklees meeting was the first ever to be broadcast live on the Internet. The mayor Clr Andrew Palfreeman announced half-way through the meeting that 812 people were watching on the council’s website.
