Robert Alden, Conservative, and Reform’s Jex Parkin – despite his party’s previous statement – were also nominated for leader, but Harmer was voted in with 40 votes amid a number of abstentions.
Labour, which previously ran the council, had also ruled itself out of forming any coalition. The party has 17 councillors in Birmingham – one more than the Conservatives and two fewer than the Greens, the city’s second largest block behind Reform.
In 2022, Labour held 65 seats.
More recently, the group had been locked in a row with members of the Unite union over pay and the loss of some job roles, with all-out, continuing strike action beginning in March 2025.
The city brought in agency staff to maintain waste collections, although recycling collections are still not being carried out.
Days from the local elections of 7 May, the then council leader, Labour’s John Cotton, said a settlement was “within sight” to resolve the dispute.
Unite officials said any new agreement would have to be put to members but that what was floated by Cotton included compensation of up to £16,000 for workers.
In 2023, the council declared itself effectively bankrupt due to a financial black hole linked to equal pay liabilities and the botched installation of a multi-million-pound IT system.
Government commissioners were brought in to oversee the council’s finances and their work continues.