One of the things that struck me when I took my seat at my first City of Edinburgh Council meeting in 2019 was the display of Union Jack mugs on the Labour benches. Two senior Labour Councillors had Union Jack mugs to the fore Cllr Cammy Day the Labour Group leader and sometime vice-convener of something Cllr Lezley Marion Cameron. It seemed odd and might more readily have been expected on the Tory benches. The SNP councillors did not turn up with Saltire mugs. Since I'd left the council in 2012 the Independence referendum had happened and Labour had been an enthusiastic member of 'Better Together'.
Wrapping yourself in any flag - Union Jack or Saltire was not something I was familiar with in the City Chambers over my time there. Until 2019.
Labour were at that time in coalition with the SNP and had been since 2012. By 2019 they were the junior party. The SNP were the lead party in the coalition by dint of getting more councillors elected. Between 2012 and 2019 there had, of course, been the Independence Referendum. During the referendum period Scottish Labour had effectively silenced any of their members who showed sympathies to the independence cause. By 2019 the tensions between the SNP and the Labour groups that were almost wholly based on the constitution.
After the 2022 elections when again the SNP elected the most councillors there was some speculation that a coalition could be formed again with Labour though because of numbers it might include the Greens as well. Meanwhile away from the council chambers the Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar was giving interviews where he kept saying that Labour would not enter coalitions with any party. He meant primarily the SNP. The Edinburgh Labour group went along with that and despite having a group of only 13 councillors emerged as the party running the council. How did that happen when the breakdown was 19 SNP, 13 Labour, 9 Conservative, 12 LibDem, 10 Green and Labour did not enter any formal coalition? Simple if you are Labour do a background deal with the Conservatives and the LibDems that sees those parties gain convenor and vice-convenorships (some specially created). Of course Labour protested their innocence saying they'd done no deals. The Conservatives and the LibDems mumbled and looked the other way and hey presto Labour became the party in power. The Union Jack mugs had triumphed and for the first time Edinburgh has an administration based on the constitutional question and not on good governance of the city.
There were two newly elected Labour councillors who refused to back the deal and were promptly suspended from the group with one eventually leaving to sit as an independent. Other strange things happened with the new Transport Convenor saying he would only be in post until October when he'd be replaced by someone better placed to take that remit forward. He's still there. Who his mystery replacement was I guess we'll never know.
There was some speculation that Labour's tenure would be short but the numbers remain in their favour generally though from time to time they lose out.
The Budget would be the big test and that is exactly what it turned out to be. Labour seemed to have crafted a motion that would allow some asks of the the other groups, particularly the Conservatives and LibDems, to be incorporated to get their budget passed. It didn't turn out that way. Labour's motion was voted down thanks to some tactical voting by some Green councillors and the erstwhile Labour councillor (who resigned from the Labour party during the meeting). Labour had a choice and chose to support the LibDem budget voting it through along with the Conservatives. The progressive and visionary SNP/Green budget was cast aside. There was a problem for Labour though - the LibDem budget that they'd voted for contained causes to end compulsory redundancies and seek to outsource council services starting with waste services. What did Labour have to say about that? Their Leader, the Council Leader, Cammy Day said he'd not read the LibDem budget motion! All would be well though they just wouldn't do those things. Labour had officially lost a member during the budget meeting and now had the same number of councillors as the LibDems whose budget had just passed and who were expected to easily win a by-election in Corstorphine Murrayfield putting them one ahead of Labour. Would the LibDems try to take over? They'd doubled the size of their group at the 2022 Council elections and were expected to gain a new councillor in a few weeks so why not pounce and take control of their budget and the council? They looked the other way again. Perhaps the new 'Better Together' arrangement is too fraught and distrustful for a switch to happen at least for now?
Time will tell but from the outside it looks like this coalition which insists it is not a coalition will trundle on Union Jack mugs held high. There could be a couple more by-elections that could cause problems for Labour especially if they lost them to the SNP or Greens. There's always the possibility of a defection too as socialist Labour members become increasingly disenchanted with Keir Starmer's Labour. As I wrote this news broke that former Labour councillor Nick Gardner had joined the Greens. I don't know how fresh those Union Jack mugs are but they could be looking mighty tired by this time next year.
Postscript: Full Council on 4 May marked a year since the last elections and the SNP attempted to remove the Labour leader and the Convenors/Vice-Convenors. It failed because the Union Jack coalition held - great thing giving senior roles to parties you 'are not in coalition' with isn't it?
Rob Munn was SNP Councillor for the Leith Walk ward 2019-2022
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