Council remains leaderless after 2nd failed election

Kirklees Council is expected to remain without a leader for more than a month after councillors failed for a second time to agree who should be appointed to the role.

A meeting on Thursday again ended in stalemate with neither the Reform UK group leader Sarah Wood or Green Party head Andrew Cooper securing the majority needed to be in charge.

It comes after last week's annual meeting when councillors failed to decide who should lead the authority.

A further vote will now take place on 15 July, with the council's chief executive taking charge in the interim.

Following the AGM on 21 May, Wood was widely mocked after a clip of the meeting showed her admitting she did not understand many of the council processes.

That meeting was dominated by lengthy exchanges over procedure and confusion about the voting process.

At the reconvened meeting on Thursday, councillors returned to the chamber in an attempt to select a leader for the second time.

During a series of questions, Wood said she "didn't need to know everything in council" because there were 68 other councillors to collaboratively offer support, while Cooper spoke about the length of his tenure, noting that his first election was in 1999.

More questions were posed on how the candidates could offer "confidence and stability", which Wood attempted to raise as a "point of order" after she viewed the question as repetitive.

Cooper answered that his record "stood for itself" before Wood stood again to speak.

Private ballots were held for each councillor, but with each receiving 29 votes, neither gained a majority.

Speaking to the BBC afterwards, Wood said: "We tried our best to reach a conclusion and left nothing off the table.

"Between now and the next meeting, we will be focused on demonstrating our commitment to collaboration."

Meanwhile, Cooper said the outcome of the meeting reflected the divided nature of the authority.

"The public voted for a council that is mixed in this way, so we're going to have to try and work out how to move forward."

He added: "We've got a lot of work to do and we've got to continue working in the communities we represent and try and do good work for the people of Kirklees, with or without a leader of the council."

Reform is the largest party on Kirklees Council following the 7 May elections.

It has 29 out of a total of 69 seats, but fell short of a majority.

The Greens have 12, Independents 11, Conservatives nine, Liberal Democrats five and Valley Independent Group three.