Birmingham Local Conservatives today slammed Labour’s complete meltdown at Birmingham City Council, where the full budget meeting was adjourned without a vote after the administration admitted they simply didn’t have the numbers to push through their double whammy budget of higher taxes for fewer services.
What was meant to be the decisive day for Birmingham’s finances descended into farce as Labour, already battered by defections, a razor-thin majority, and weeks of desperate manoeuvres like last-minute time changes and taxiing in absent councillors, had no choice but to halt proceedings and kick the can down the road to another day.
Residents face more uncertainty over council tax rises, bin collections, and crumbling services while Labour scrambles to cobble together support.
Cllr Alden (Con, Erdington), Leader of the Opposition & Birmingham Local Conservatives, said:
This isn’t governing; it’s a shambles. After bankrupting the city, enduring over a year of bin strikes, and failing to deliver basics, Labour can’t even get their own budget debated and voted on in one sitting.
Today’s full adjournment is the ultimate proof of Labour’s collapse. They changed times, begged for attendance, and still couldn’t face the music. Instead, they ran away and postponed the whole thing. Birmingham deserves leaders who show up and deliver, not excuses and adjournments.
Councillor could have backed the Local Conservative amendment to clean up the city, convert exempt accommodation back into family housing and to have kept council tax lower than Labour plans. Instead, Labour voted for chaos and a further adjournment.
Birmingham has suffered enough. May 2026 is the moment to boot Labour out and bring real change – vote Local Conservative to clean up the council and clean up our city.
Cllr Ewan Mackey (Con, Sutton Roughley), Deputy Leader of the Opposition & Birmingham Local Conservatives, said:
This failing Labour administration has lost control of the council chamber and lost the trust of the people. In May’s local elections, only a decisive vote for Local Conservatives will end this chaos for good. We’ll fight for lower costs, reliable bin collections, cleaner streets, and an end to the incompetence that’s let our city down for too long.
With Labour already having moved the meeting to an earlier finish to accommodate Ramadan, they were unwilling to stay beyond 5 PM to do the work needed to pass a sustainable budget. Cllr Mackey added:
Labour consistently fails to put residents first. Rather than staying to thrash out a workable budget, they chose the easy option of an early night, extending the uncertainty to residents and hoping a different day would change the arithmetic. Whenever the meeting resumes, though, their councillors still need to turn up and decide if they want to vote for more pain or vote for our plan to clean up the city and clean up the way the council works.