Labour make partnership offer to Lib Dems over running Milton Keynes council

Thursday’s local elections saw the Conservative opposition lose five seats, three to the Lib Dems and another two to Labour.

But the Labour group, although now the largest party with 23 of the 57 seats, are still six short of the 29 they would need to run the council without help.

Following their group’s annual meeting on Saturday, Labour leader Pete Marland said an offer to continue the arrangement will be made to the Lib Dem group. The Lib Dems, who now have 15 seats, are meeting this evening (Tuesday) to discuss the matter.

Cllr Marland said: “MK Labour and the Liberal Democrats both had a good result in the local elections last week. The Labour Group believe that the partnership has worked well for Milton Keynes and delivered a stable way of running MK Council over the past few years, and therefore although Labour are now the largest party on MK Council, we will be making an offer to the Liberal Democrats to continue with the partnership as we feel that there are significant areas of agreement between our two parties.

“I think few could argue one message from the electorate was for political parties to stop bickering and get stuff done. We are ready to discuss with them how we could take that forward in the coming days.”

The council’s annual meeting will be held next Wednesday, May 15, when any agreement between the two parties will be formalised.