The battle for Stockport Town Hall has ramped up another notch with Lib Dem chief Mark Hunter confirming he will stand against Labour’s Coun Elise Wilson at a crunch meeting later this week. The Lib Dems, already the largest group on the council, emerged from the local elections with three more councillors than Labour, who have run the town hall since 2016.
Although not enough to give the Lib Dems a majority on the 63-seat council, it increases their number to 28 while Labour remain static on 25.. Now Coun Hunter has written to councillors of all parties ‘accepting that mandate’ and declaring his group is ‘ready to step up’ and take on responsibility for the council.
It comes hot on the heels of Coun Wilson’s pitch last week, who argued for ‘continuity and the stable running of Stockport’ in a bid to retain the top job and keep Labour at the helm. But, with the ‘political’ element of the annual council meeting scheduled for Thursday night, Coun Hunter has made his case for the Lib Dems’ taking the reins for the first time since 2016.
