{"id":595511,"date":"2026-05-21T03:42:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T03:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/595511\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T03:42:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T03:42:14","slug":"bolton-council-elects-labour-cllr-zaman-as-new-town-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/595511\/","title":{"rendered":"Bolton Council elects Labour Cllr Zaman as new town leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Bolton Councillors elected Labour Cllr Akhtar Zaman to be their new leader yesterday (May 20), after the recent local elections<\/a> left Bolton leaderless.\n<\/p>\n

\n Votes for Cllr Zaman came from within Labour itself – who still have 20 seats – from the Liberal Democrats, and from the Horwich and Blackrod First and other independents.\n<\/p>\n

\n Councillor Akhtar Zaman as Leader of the Labour Group, with Councillor Martyn Donaghy (Image: Bolton Labour)\n<\/p>\n

\n Cllr Leader Zaman addressed the chamber: “Never did I believe that I would be leader of this great town – to me Bolton is the most beautiful place on the earth.\n<\/p>\n

\n “I would like to say thank you to Nick Peel,<\/a> a man of incredible talents.\n<\/p>\n

\n “I came to this town over forty years ago with absolutely nothing, and this town took me in and gave me everything I have today.\n<\/p>\n

\n “This is the reason why I stand in front of you all.\n<\/p>\n

\n “I got involved in politics when I was in the voluntary sector 30 years ago.\n<\/p>\n

\n Cllr Nadim Muslim stood against Cllr Zaman (Image: Cllr Nadim Muslim)\n<\/p>\n

\n “We are going to continue the work we began in 2023 to regenerate our town.\n<\/p>\n

\n “We will work for a greener, cleaner, and safer borough, where diverse communities live in peace and harmony.\n<\/p>\n

\n “My door will always be open to anyone who wants to make Bolton better.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Standing against Cllr Zaman was the leader of the Bolton Conservatives, Cllr Nadim Muslim.\n<\/p>\n

\n Conservative Cllr Fairclough said: “Throughout our time in power we believed fairness mattered more than political control.\n<\/p>\n

\n “Since Labour have returned to power, much of that spirit has been eroded.\n<\/p>\n

\n Cllr Hilary Fairclough, seen here when she was elected Mayor in 2019 (Image: Martini)\n<\/p>\n

\n “Today, I ask all parties to consider this – do you want every ward treated equally, and do you want a leader who will unite us rather than divide us?\n<\/p>\n

\n “If the answer is yes, I urge you to vote for Nadim Muslim.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Cllr David Grant, of the Horwich and Blackrod First independents, said: “We found out that Cllr Muslim wanted to be leader about an hour ago. We’ve had no discussion, no talks, we don’t know what his policies are.\n<\/p>\n

\n “I will be supporting Cllr Zaman as leader of the council.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Cllr David Grant (Image: Horwich Town Council)\n<\/p>\n

\n But Cllr Muslim fired back: “We did meet the leader of HBFI so to say we never met is not strictly true.\n<\/p>\n

\n “I think it’s very brave considering there is a by-election coming up in Horwich.\n<\/p>\n

\n “All HBFI are doing is propping up the Labour party, which usually means higher taxes.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Despite the back-and-forth, Cllr Zaman was elected by a broad coalition of Labour, Lib Dem, and independent MPs.\n<\/p>\n

\n Several councillors, including all of Bolton’s Green Party councillors, abstained from voting.\n<\/p>\n

\n Cllr Martyn Cox (Image: Public)\n<\/p>\n

\n More surprising was the election of Conservative Cllr Andrew Morgan to be the head of Bolton’s planning department, beating out Labour’s candidate for the position, Cllr Emily Mort.\n<\/p>\n

\n Conservative Cllr Martyn Cox said: “Cllr Cox: “If you abstain from voting for Cllr Morgan, you are voting for Labour.\n<\/p>\n

\n “Everybody who knows Cllr Morgan is the right person for this role.\n<\/p>\n

\n “This is not the time to abstain – if you abstain, you’re voting for Labour.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Tory Cllr Anne Galloway seconded the motion.\n<\/p>\n

\n Cllr Grant, of the Horwich and Blackrod first independents, also voted for Cllr Morgan.\n<\/p>\n

\n Cllr Grant said: “Our group is not whipped so they can make their own minds up.\n<\/p>\n

\n “My thoughts are – we do need strong leadership on that committee.\n<\/p>\n

\n “For me, I’m actually in agreement with Cllr Muslim – I’m sure it’s going to be one of the very few times this year.\n<\/p>\n

\n Cllr Andrew Morgan (Image: Bolton Council)\n<\/p>\n

\n “I will be voting for Cllr Morgan.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Despite speeches from Labour Cllrs John McHugh and newly-elected council leader Cllr Zaman, Cllr Morgan won the vote, and was elected leader of the Bolton Planning Committee.\n<\/p>\n

\n He did this with a broad range of votes from Conservative, Green, Reform, and independent councillors.\n<\/p>\n

\n Bolton’s 2026\/27 constitution was also approved in a unanimous vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bolton Councillors elected Labour Cllr Akhtar Zaman to be their new leader yesterday (May 20), after the recent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-595511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}