The City of Leeds elected its first Asian Lord Mayor on Monday when councillors met for the first time since the local elections.
Elected as a Labour Party councillor, self-employed businessman Mohammed Iqbal, a Muslim born in Kashmir, came to Leeds in 1970 when he was nine years old. Coun Iqbal played a leading part in trying to bring communities together after it emerged three of the July 7 London bombers had lived in Beeston.
Following the results of the June 2004 local elections, the leaders of the Liberal Democrat, Conservative and Green groups had forged a historic joint administration.
In the 2006 elections the only seat to change hands was Morley South which the British National Party gained from the Morley Borough Independents, the BNP's first-ever seat on Leeds Council. The political composition of Leeds City Council (99 members) is now: Labour 40, Liberal Democrat 26, Conservative 24, Morley Borough Independent four, Green Party three, Independent one, BNP one.
The Liberal Democrats also chose an Asian leader:
quote:
Councillor Javaid Akhtar has been appointed the Chair of the Liberal Democrat Group on Leeds City Council.
Despite the choice of a Labour Lord Mayor, the alliance of the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Green Party will continue to run the authority.
Iqbal was actually selected as the Lord Mayor-elect on January 11, 2006, subject to him being re-elected as a councillor.
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posted 24 May 2006 12:07 AM
