Gerald Vernon-Jackson is back in charge of Portsmouth City Council tonight, leading a minority administration. He served in this role from 2004-14 so he certainly knows the ropes. He now leads a minority administration with Labour backing:

From the BBC

“I will work as hard as I can to make sure the city of Portsmouth always comes first,” Mr Vernon-Jackson said.

“We need to be building more council houses and affordable homes for local people… I want to make sure we make the city a better place in terms of transport,” he told the meeting.

He added that for family reasons, his leadership would be a “transition to next generation” and he would not stay in the role for a long time.

In a video on Portsmouth.co.uk, he talked about his aim to get more social housing built, to tackle homelessness, improve recycling and sort out parking problems.

Meanwhile, a confidence and supply arrangement with Labour sees the Tories put out of their flagship council in Greater Manchester. From The Messenger:

The two parties agreed that the ‘Green Bin Tax’ should be abolished, with the Lib-Dems pushing for the charge to be removed next year.

The new coalition also committed to “addressing the pot hole problem once and for all” with a new Highways Investment Programme.

The coalition agreement also promised closer scrutiny of Amey, including publishing a plan to address residents’ concerns with the contractor.

A Lib-Dem letter confirming the agreement was sent to party members this morning with full details of the power-sharing deal.

The letter reads: “The Liberal Democrat Group have taken the decision to support the Labour Party to form a minority administration on the basis of supporting their nomination for Leader of the council.

“On matters that go to Council, decisions will be made on a case by case basis (confidence and supply) other than on the points below which the Labour group have agreed to enforces as part of the agreement.”

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social