Bradford Council held its Annual Meeting today in City Hall, this is the first Full Council meeting following the elections held on 7 May 2026.
Reform Councillor Stephen Place has been voted in as Leader of Bradford Council during an at times chaotic meeting.
The former police officer, who was elected to the represent the Royds ward earlier this month, will take on one of the most important political roles in Yorkshire following Tuesday’s Annual Meeting of Bradford Council.
It brings to an end weeks of uncertainty over how the Council would be governed after the seismic changes the local election brought.
But it was clear from the three-hour meeting that running the Council might prove a difficult task for Reform due to their lack of an overall majority – as the party lost a number of key votes to make appointment for key Council positions.
At the local elections earlier this year, Reform won enough seats to become the largest party on Bradford Council.
The election ended with them winning 29 seats. That has since fallen to 28 after the apparent suspension of Councillor Daniel Devaney (Clayton and Fairweather Green) for racist social media posts.
But the number was far below the 46 votes a party needs for an overall majority.
Since the election there had been little in the way of public comments on how the Council would be run.
Although Tuesday’s meeting saw Cllr Place named leader of the Council, his party was on the losing end of every other vote.
After the appointment of new lord Mayor Councillor Chris Herd (Cons, Worth Valley), the meeting moved on to the business of appointing a new Council Leader. In recent years with Labour having a majority on the Council, this part of the meeting had been a foregone conclusion.
Cllr Place was nominated to the role by fellow Reform Councillor Oliver Darryl Bolton-Williams and when it came to vote for the new leader all 28 Reform members voted in favour of Cllr Place, but there were 35 votes from other parties against his appointment. The Conservatives, who some had suggested might go into coalition with Reform, abstained from voting.
It meant Cllr Place lost the vote.
It was then announced that the meeting would be paused while all party leaders met in a side room to discuss how to progress.
After a lengthy break, Councillors returned to the chamber. This time Reform nominated both Cllr Place and Councillor Andrew Judson (Reform, Keighley West) as potential leaders. Members were informed they would need to vote for one of the two nominated candidates, or abstain from voting. This time Cllr Place received 28 votes, all from his Reform colleagues, while Cllr Judson received none. Every other member on the 90 strong Council abstained from voting – meaning Cllr Place is now leader of Bradford Council.
[New leader of Bradford Council Cllr Stephen Place]
After the election of the leader, the Council went on to vote the chairs and deputy chairs of various committees. These include Standards, Governance and Audit and Licensing Committees, as well as several Scrutiny Committees – which scrutinise Council policies and decisions.
When it came to voting on appointments to these panels, Reform nominated candidates for every committee.
The various opposition parties made their own nominations for the roles.
In each case, the opposition nomination easily beat the Reform nomination when it came to the votes.
It means that each of the Council’s committees will have a Chair and Deputy Chair from one of the opposition parties.
After the meeting Leader of Bradford Council Cllr Stephen Place said:
“It is a great honour to become leader of Bradford Council and I am delighted.
“We look forward to serving the people of the district and we will work hard with all stakeholders and partners across Bradford to ensure that Bradford is a prosperous, clean and safe place for all residents and businesses.
“My laser focus is on growing the economy and bringing in new and exciting business to the area.”
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