Sheffield’s Green Councillor Group responds to Labour’s intent to rip up the joint administration of Sheffield City Council.
“It is so sad to hear that Sheffield Labour have failed to stand up for Sheffield. They are throwing away our joint working agreement because of top-down demands from London.
Labour’s ultimatum was never really about the conduct of Green Councillors in Sheffield, who are wholeheartedly committed to this city. It came from Labour HQ in London and is a really troubling attack on local democracy.
Sheffield deserves so much better than a Labour council leadership decided by national party management who are happy to play political games with all our futures.
Over the last few years, we have disagreed with many Labour policies, such as cutting vital support for disabled people and pensioners, their acts of climate vandalism and obsession with fossil fuels and airports, cutting funding for warm homes, arming Israel’s genocide in Gaza and jailing people for supporting Palestinians by protesting peacefully.
Yet we have put our responsibilities to the people of Sheffield first – by working cross-party and having a positive influence on delivering local policy.
Greens won more votes than any other party in Sheffield this May – with 47,886 people voting for a Green Councillor.
Labour, by contrast, did very badly; they lost 13 seats, and only narrowly defended 3 of their seats up for election. They have a very weak mandate to run the council alone.
We have offered to work through this. We are willing to keep talking and, from our perspective, the door remains open. It seems clear, however, that the decision about Sheffield Council was not a decision the Sheffield Labour Leader was allowed to make in the interests of Sheffield residents.
Local people have just been used as pawns in a cynical political game being played by Labour at a national level.
Labour owns the consequences and they alone will have to explain to the people of Sheffield why they’ve put party politics over local residents.
For our part, Green Councillors will keep doing what we were elected to do.
We are committed to ensuring that Sheffield is a diverse, welcoming and tolerant place.
We will continue to speak up for Palestinians and against Labour’s complicity in the genocide.
Let us be clear about where we stand. We do not, and will not, conflate Zionism with Judaism, or anti-Zionism with antisemitism. We are an anti-racist party and we stand with all of Sheffield’s communities, as we always have.
We thank all the people and groups who have been in touch with messages of support recognising our hard work.”
Sincerely,
Sheffield Green Councillor Group
Notes:
Sheffield City Council is made up of 84 Councillors across 28 wards.
Labour have 26 seats, Liberal Democrats 22, Greens 19, Reform 11, New Chartist Reform group 2, Community Councillor group 2, Independent 2.
Labour say it is their intention to put forward a Labour minority administration at full Council this Wednesday 4th November 2026.
