Three Labour councillors are to battle it out for the leadership of Birmingham City Council next week.
The city’s 80 Labour councillors will meet in private on Thursday, September 28 to choose their leader who will then take over as council leader
The election will be held after former council leader John Clancy resigned over his handling of the bins dispute .
Overwhelming favourite to land the top job is Shard End councillor Ian Ward. He has been deputy leader of the Labour group since 2005 and deputy leader of the council since 2012.
He was appointed interim council leader in the wake of Clancy’s resignation.
Many senior Labour members and MPs wanted to avoid a battle and bring an end to the weeks of turmoil at the top of the Birmingham Labour Party.
The Birmingham Independent Improvement Panel , the Government watchdog overseeing the council, has also called for a swift resolution.
But two backbench councillors had other ideas and have thrown their hats into the ring.
Selly Oak councillor Changese Khan is a relative newcomer to the city council having been first elected in 2014. He applied for a cabinet position under Cllr Clancy but missed out. However last year he was appointed to the unpaid role of council ambassador with responsibility for monitoring and promoting the council’s vast pension fund.
The other challenger is councillor Barry Henley, who in his second spell on the city council has represented the Brandwood ward since 2011. Cllr Henley stood against councillors Ward and Clancy for the leadership in 2015 and secured just one vote from the group - presumably his own.
However, he has senior management experience with major corporations and strongly believes he is best placed to whip the city council into shape after years of chaos.
The election will be via the single transferable vote system. A councillor securing more than 50 per cent of the vote will win. If not the third place candidate is eliminated and his supporters second preferences are counted to find the winner.
The Labour leader will then be appointed council leader by a vote at the next full council meeting.
