Reform-dominated Kirklees Council to be without leader for more than two months

Kirklees Council is set to go without a leader for more than two months after the Reform-dominated local authority failed to elect one for a second time.

The council went viral when freshly-elected Reform member Coun Sarah Wood was filmed saying she didn't "understand" what she was voting for.

Reform won 29 seats - six short of a majority - in the local elections on May 7. The council was plunged into more chaos at a meeting on Thursday when members failed to elect a leader for the second time.

The deadlock means the authority will remain without a political leader until at least July 15, with the chief executive having to steer the ship in the meantime.

The latest stalemate comes just days after a previous attempt to elect a leader collapsed amid confusion and accusations of political game-playing.

Reform became the biggest party on Kirklees Council after winning 29 seats in the local elections earlier this month, but fell short of overall control.

Councillors gathered for a second attempt to break the impasse, with Reform UK's Coun Sarah Wood and Green Party Coun Andrew Cooper facing questions from colleagues. Two separate secret ballots were then held.

Making her pitch for the job, Coun Wood argued that leadership was about bringing people together rather than knowing every detail of local government.

She said: "I don't need to know everything about politics to lead in this council, because there are 29 of us.

"When we work together as a team, all the little bits of information that I don't understand, I can hopefully rely upon you to bring that." Her comments follow last week's failed leadership vote.

In the now notorious clip from the meeting, she said: "I do not understand the constitution. I have not had sufficient time to read that as yet."

In the latest meeting, her rival Coun Cooper pointed to his experience after nearly three decades on the authority.

He said: "I've got the background and skills, I can do this job." Neither candidate secured a majority, leaving the council once again unable to decide who should lead it.

The meeting also saw tensions flare after Wood claimed councillors had been subjected to "name-calling" during the mayor-making ceremony.

But Conservative Coun Martyn Bolt hit back, telling the chamber: "There was no name-calling when I chaired that meeting."