White Smoke over Cardiff City Hall Tonight?

One of the big surprises of last Thursday council election was Labour holding on to power in Cardiff.

After seizing power from a Lib Dem led administration in 2012 Labour have a troubled time and it was uprising that a divided party wasn't punished by the voters,

Many have thought their support would falter and they could be forced into coalition. But as the last results were announced, Labour had maintained the same number of councillors it went into the election with.

However after keeping power it seems that Labour will continue its Civil War and we may have years of the repeat of the  friction.


Phil Bale will have to fight to stay as the leader of Cardiff council once more as five of his colleagues have made bids to oust him.

Labour maintained control of the city council in Thursday’s elections, securing 39 seats.



Labour’s constitution says they must hold an annual meeting to appoint a leader.

Wales Online reports that the meeting the meeting will be held on Monday night and as it stands, there are six hopefuls who have put their names forward.

That's six out of 39 seats

They are Splott Councillors Huw Thomas and Ed Stubbs, Cathays Councillor Chris Weaver, Heath Councillor Graham Hinchey and Grangetown ’s Lynda Thorne.

Its almost like a papal election

Will white smoke be appearing over City Hall tonight,

WOL tells us that


Coun Hinchey was a cabinet member in the last administration and had control over finance.

Coun Weaver was a deputy cabinet member in the last administration.

Coun Thomas served on the cabinet under former Labour leader Heather Joyce. He has also stood for Parliament in his home seat of Ceredigion .

Coun Stubbs is a communications officer for Labour in the Assembly and has no cabinet experience.
Coun Thorne has made a number of bids for leadership of Labour. She has also served as deputy chair of Labour.


A senior Labour councillor said:

 “I am afraid Phil is going to have to go. The group under his leadership became very dysfunctional, with factions constantly arguing and a succession of resignations. It was pretty unpleasant being a Labour councillor and having to go through this.
“We can’t carry on like that any more – there’s a need for a fresh start.
“The fact that so many councillors are lining up to oppose Phil shows that he lacks confidence in the group. He’s a nice guy but a weak leader. There’s a 90% chance that he won’t win the group leadership election on Monday evening.”

A succession of Labour councillors resigned during Mr Bale’s leadership and the party lost two by-elections in seats that were regained last Thursday.

But it seems Labour may be set to continue as it did over the last 5 years , With the prospect of 5 defeated members  in the leadership contest including Mr Bale there may well be many a bruised ego of the losers who will carry on plotting.

Plaid seemed to have put a challenge to Labour in parts of the city and the Liberal Democrats in other parts,

But that came to nothing.

I wonder  if Plaid's campaign in particulate was to aggressive and although Neil Mcevoy 's campaign style which is admired in some Nationalist quarters may be win some votes particularly in his own patch but as it spreads out the voters  may find it worrying.

Plaid may have to look at how it successfully campaigned in the party of RCT that it is the Rhondda and compare it with Cardiff West.

As for the Liberal Democrats they have a lot of rebuilding to do, They were the Party that often build its power base around the parish pump and used that to win in the  Westminster Constituency,

How this will work out in the Capitol over the next 5 years will be interesting.