‘Horrible, unpleasant, confrontational’: What’s really going on inside Sheffield Labour?

Good afternoon readers — and welcome to Thursday’s Tribune.

The Sheffield Labour Party is currently consumed by internecine warfare. On Monday, seven long-standing Labour councillors, including former council leader Terry Fox, were suspended from the party for defying the party whip. Tensions in the party have been simmering for months since Fox was ousted as party leader in May. A major vote on the Local Plan last Wednesday was the spark that escalated a series of skirmishes into all out war.

But there’s more going on here than a vote on the Local Plan or a site for travelling showpeople in Beighton. Fox’s sacking as leader was an attempt to return the Sheffield Labour Party back to winning ways after years of damaging rows, chiefly the long-running street tree scandal, which he and fellow rebel Bryan Lodge were closely involved with. But now, rather than lancing the boil, it seems that the party’s power play is coming back to bite them.

”Maybe we needed this blood-letting,” one well-placed councillor told The Tribune. “Maybe it was an amputation for a damaged limb that we had to do.”

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Mini-briefing

🏰 One of Sheffield city centre’s most neglected buildings has been put on the market. The Salvation Army Citadel on Burgess Street, which is Grade II-listed, dates from 1894 but has lain empty since 1999. The building is currently listed as for sale on the website of property consultants Paul Lancaster, although they do not say what the asking price is. Plans have also been unveiled for a “landmark building” on the site of the former Next on Fargate.

🏢 An office building owned by Sheffield City Council which was once hailed as the “coolest place to work in the city” is losing money due to its low occupancy rate, the local democracy reporting service report. Electric Works opposite Sheffield railway station, which was set up in 2009 and boasts a three-storey helter skelter, was full in 2018 with 56 tenants. However, occupancy rates have fallen to 57%, way below the 85% it needs to meet income targets.

🎧 Deadline report that Persephonica, the podcast company behind hit show The News Agents, is to open its headquarters in Sheffield early next year. The News Agents is currently the most popular podcast in the UK, and in June added a spin off in the US. They have also just unveiled Political Currency, a new podcast presented by Ed Balls and George Osborne. The company was set up in 2021 by former BBC journalist Dino Sofos, who grew up in the city.

Things to do

🍿 On Friday, 15 September at the Showroom, there will be a special screening of Dead Man’s Shoes to celebrate the re-release of the classic British thriller. Directed by Shane Meadows and starring Paddy Considine, the movie tells the story of a former soldier who returns to his hometown to take revenge on a group of former acquaintances — and is not for the faint hearted. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with producer Mark Herbert.

🚣 To celebrate Sheffield's beautiful waterways, on Saturday, 16 September, the Canal & River Trust are running a family-friendly day of activities at Attercliffe moorings (10am-4pm). Attractions on the day will include canoe taster sessions, drama walks, arts and crafts, circus skills, drumming workshops and water safety activities. Attercliffe moorings is a short walk from the Arena tram station. Food and drink will be available from local street food vendors.

🪴 This Sunday, 17 September marks the 2nd birthday of Pollen, Sheffield’s inner-city flower market. Since it started in September 2021, the market, which takes place at Grey to Green in Castlegate, has been hugely popular and now attracts hundreds of people each month. There will also be an opportunity to explore the castle site with the Sheaf and Porter Rivers Trust, and The Tribune will be there too handing out flyers. Please say hello if you see us!

‘Horrible, unpleasant, confrontational’: What’s really going on inside Sheffield Labour?

It was obvious to everyone in Sheffield’s Labour Group that something big was about to happen. After months of simmering resentment, last Wednesday’s meeting of Labour councillors was the moment the lid finally blew off. The group met that morning as usual at the Town Hall, in preparation for the big council vote on the Local Plan later that afternoon. But the meeting — a private, Labour-only affair that is separate from open council meetings — was the moment that the turmoil of the last few years came to the surface, a blood-letting that has shocked even long-standing councillors.

Asked to describe how the meeting went down, one councillor who spoke to The Tribune on condition of anonymity chose three words: “horrible, unpleasant, confrontational”. Labour members hurled accusations at each other about all sorts of things, they added. “There are some of the old timers who’ve seen councillors having shouting matches and going at each other hammer and tongs in the past,” the source added. “But even they say they’ve never seen it this brutal.”

While this row blew up in the last few weeks, it’s actually been brewing ever since May’s local elections. On the morning of the count, former leader Terry Fox unexpectedly announced he was stepping down, saying it had been an “honour and privilege” to serve as leader. A BBC report said that Labour group matters in Sheffield would be overseen by a national party campaign improvement board “for the foreseeable future".

But it soon became clear there was more to it than that. In interviews after the disappointing results were announced, senior Labour figures in the region made it clear that Fox was carrying the can for Labour’s recent poor performance in the city, as well as high profile missteps such as the reaction to Sir Mark Lowcock’s street tree report, “containergate”, and the rollout of the clean air zone. “Starmer’s team just didn’t rate him,” is how one well-connected source puts it.

Ever since then, the local party has been split into two camps — one loyal to Walkley councillor and novice council leader Tom Hunt and the other loyal to the previous leadership of Manor Castle councillor Fox, who are mostly but not entirely drawn from the south east of the city. The clash is cultural as much as anything. The party is now run by a technocratic, centrist elite drawn from the professional classes. The south east group represents an older, more traditional Labour establishment based in the city’s historic industries. Over the last four months, this latter group “have stomped and stropped and made a lot of noise,” one councillor told us. “And they’ve become more and more disruptive.”

Huge fallouts like this always need a spark; a reason for the two sides to finally abandon the war of words and formally take up arms against each other. And last Wednesday’s vote on the Local Plan seemingly provided that casus belli.