On Manchester City Council's most powerful committee, the north of the city is barely represented

Dear readers — there’s not been much local political news to chew over these past few weeks, seeing that most of Greater Manchester’s boroughs aren’t hosting local elections. So in the absence of the usual cut-and-thrust of electioneering, jealousies and upsets, we have decided to get into the nitty gritty of Manchester Council’s executive committee. It follows a reader getting in touch with a very interesting observation. On this key committee, out of its 19 members, only one person represents a ward in the north of the city. It means some 110,000 residents, many in poor areas, are without representation on the council’s main decision-making body. How did this happen? And what does it tell us about Manchester politics? That’s below.

As you will have noticed, there were no local elections in Manchester this year. There were by-elections in Rochdale and Tameside, but none in the city itself. There is, however, another kind of election coming up there — one that happens nowhere else in Greater Manchester.

Next week, Manchester City Council’s dominant Labour group will have a cabinet election. Councillors throw their names in the ring for various positions that make up the council’s executive, or “cabinet”. The executive is the council’s main decision-making body when it comes to things like making key decisions relating to budgets and implementing policies. Most of the decisions it makes don’t need the support of the council at-large, so it’s a pretty big deal. Other positions like Lord Mayor and the chairs of various committees are also up for grabs.

Elsewhere in the city region, council leaders appoint their cabinets. But Manchester Council elects. This quirk was introduced to democratise the process and avoid nepotistic appointments. But while it makes things more democratic, it can cause the executive to become imbalanced.

Last week, a Mill reader got in touch because they had been perusing the executive committee page (while waiting for someone to join a video call and killing time). They said: “Out of ten of them (the seven elected executives plus the leader and her deputies) not a single one represents a ward north of the city centre, with most of them from wards in the more affluent south.”

Indeed, if you count the leader and her deputies, the executive members and their deputies, plus the leaders of the two opposition parties (who also sit on the executive), only one person — Shazia Butt, Cheetham councillor and deputy executive for early years and young people — represents a ward north of the city centre. That’s out of 19 total committee members. Meanwhile, the committee has two councillors each from Old Moat and Northenden, wards in the south.

Granted, there are 96 councillors across Manchester. So it'd be a big ask to get complete geographic representation across the 19 executive posts. But for six northern wards — Higher Blackley, Charlestown, Moston, Crumpsall, Miles Platting and Newton Heath, plus Harpurhey — to have no representative on the executive at all seems remarkable. Those wards have a combined population of some 110,000 people according to the last census, and many of the city’s poorest and most vulnerable live there. 

It raises questions. Why are north Manchester's councillors not getting elected to the executive? What does it tell us about the way local politics has changed in Manchester? And does it really matter?