Telling Ben Bradley to resign is 'waste of time' as Nottinghamshire County Council leader set to survive

Labour says calling for Ben Bradley to resign would be a "waste of time" as the Nottinghamshire County Council leader looks set to survive a confidence vote. Although accusing Councillor Bradley of taking his "eye off the ball" whilst campaigning to be the first ever East Midlands Mayor, Labour says a new leader would not make much difference.

Councillor Bradley was accused of "squatting" in County Hall by the Independent Alliance opposition group, which requested an extraordinary meeting of the full council to be held so that a motion of no confidence in Councillor Bradley could be discussed. That motion will be debated at a meeting being held at 1.30pm on Thursday (May 16).

If the motion calling for Councillor Bradley's resignation was to pass, it would require all opposition councillors and some of his own Conservative councillors to back it, given that the Tories have the majority. Although the motion would not automatically trigger Councillor Bradley's resignation, its passing would have made his position more difficult.

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Yet it now looks as though he is certain to avoid this fate, with the Labour group having announced that it will not be backing calls for Councillor Bradley to resign. Councillor Kate Foale, the Labour group's leader, said: "Ben Bradley has taken his eye off the ball in pursuit of personal career ambitions and is failing to run the council properly, but will a different Conservative leader bring about the change Nottinghamshire needs? I certainly don't think so.

"We have seen how simply replacing one Conservative leader with another in Westminster didn't fix anything, and in the case of Liz Truss who crashed the economy, there is always the risk it could make things even worse. While the Conservatives are the ruling group in Nottinghamshire they will continue to let our residents down and fail to provide the services they desperately need."

Ben Bradley came second in the East Midlands Mayor election, with Labour's Claire Ward winning and becoming the first ever office holder. Since his election loss, Councillor Bradley has said he wants to continue running Nottinghamshire County Council at least until the next county council elections in 2025.

There had been rumours that some in his Conservative group wanted to challenge him for the position of leader, but Councillor Bradley's position for the next year is set to be confirmed at Thursday's full council meeting. Speaking previously about the motion of no confidence in his leadership, Councillor Bradley said: "I hope Jason [Zadrozny, the Independent Alliance leader] enjoys playing these childish games. I will be getting on with my job working for local residents, just as I always have."

Councillor Foale added: "Given the fantastic results for the Labour Party in Nottinghamshire with the convincing election of Claire Ward as East Midlands Mayor and Gary Godden as the Police and Crime Commissioner, our residents have voted to break free from the Conservative chaos that we have been subjected to over the last few years... Labour's focus is on winning the next local elections in 2025 and delivering meaningful change for our residents, not wasting council time with publicity stunts like this."