A bid has been launched to oust Nick Forbes as Newcastle City Council’s Labour leader.
As local election votes were counted on Thursday evening, it emerged that rivals have put plans in motion to try and replace the party figurehead.
Byker councillor Nick Kemp, who quit the council’s cabinet last summer in a bitter split from Labour’s top brass in the city, confirmed that he is putting himself forward to become leader.
The battle will be fought at the Labour group’s annual general meeting (AGM) on Monday evening.
If Coun Forbes, who has been council leader for 10 years, was to lose the leadership vote then it would likely mean a major shake-up of the local authority’s entire top team.
It is understood that West Fenham councillor Karen Kilgour has thrown her hat in the ring to become deputy leader, a post currently held by Joyce McCarty.
Coun Kemp confirmed his intention to challenge for the leadership at Thursday night’s local election count, held at Northumbria University’s Sport Central, but declined to comment further.
Coun Forbes said: “I look forward to putting my case forward at the AGM. We elect our leader every year.
“I have both a strong track record of delivery and ambitious ideas for the future to put to the Labour group.”
The council leader is also a senior figure for the Labour Party nationally, leading the party's group on the Local Government Association.
Coun Kemp has sat on the council since 2002 and had previously had responsibility for issues such as trading standards and bin collections in his role as cabinet member for environmental and regulatory services.
But he quit that role last June, claiming that he was being undermined by “constant sniping” and “personal animosities”.
In his resignation letter, Coun Kemp accused a colleague of leaking a story about him to the press and said cabinet relationships “deteriorated further last week to the point where it has become impossible for me to deliver my portfolio and play a constructive role”.
At the time, Coun Forbes claimed that he had received “a number of complaints” about the Byker councillor’s behaviour prior to his resignation from the cabinet.
