The councillor who can’t make up his mind

Dear readers — welcome to another week and the peak pre-festive period that we at The Dispatch like to call “mince pie Monday”.

In today’s edition, we’ve been speaking to Sandwell Councillor Sukhbir Singh Gill about what prompted his rapid switch from Labour to Reform to an independent member of the council — a multi-party move which took place in under 24 hours last week. What was behind the sudden change(s) of heart? Find out below.

Also coming up: a bogus lawyer has been jailed for running an immigration scam to beef-up spousal visa applications, Birmingham City Council is set to pay out more than £250 million to discriminated-against women workers, and chief constable Craig Guildford is expected to return to parliament for further questioning over the Maccabi fan ban row.

Catch up and coming up:

On Saturday, our go-to young(ish) writer Alex Taylor put the CBSO’s attempts to engage new audiences to the test. Find out if they converted him into a classical music fan here. Bill Lees called it “a wonderful, informative, and startlingly relevant piece of writing”.
Elsewhere in the Mill Media cinematic universe, our colleagues in Liverpool published a heartfelt essay about the emotional impact of the decline of local radio. Check it out — and have a tissue at the ready — here.
Speaking of cities in the north west: Mill Media is hiring a marketing and events assistant based in Manchester, to work across all the Mill Media titles. Please pass on the job advert to anyone you know who has a creative and strategic mind.

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Photo of the week

Changing of the guard: new work by graffiti artist TITLE has appeared on the hoardings along High Street in Deritend. Peeking above are the cranes from Caddick’s construction of new, build-to-rent neighbourhood The Stone Yard on Upper Trinity Street. The regeneration project will create roughly 1000 homes by spring 2027, significantly changing the landscape of this currently under-used part of the city.

Brum in Brief

🏵️ It’s been a turbulent time for Sandwell councillor Sukhbir Singh Gill who last week twice changed the colour of his rosette in quick succession. On Tuesday, eagle-eyed council members and residents noticed that Gill appeared to have defected from Labour to Reform, with the latter’s logo now appearing on his page on the council website. When The Dispatch caught up with the member for St Paul’s ward, he confirmed he had been deselected by his party and was disappointed. “Labour didn’t help me at all,” he told us of his five years in the role, which is why he had jumped ship to Nigel Farage’s party. However, just 24 hours later, Gill was newly listed as an independent. This was not due to political differences though — The Dispatch understands that Gill thought that all he needed to do to represent Reform was to join the party. Sadly for him, that’s not the case — there is an application process and The Dispatch understands Reform is not accepting defections this close to the 2026 contest. If you have any information on why Councillor Gill was deselected, please get in touch: editor@birminghamdispatch.co.uk

💼 A fake accountant and his partners have been jailed for running an elaborate immigration fraud ring from Birmingham after being foiled by an undercover sting operation. Muhammad Munir pretended to be a registered accountant and immigration provider, giving his clients fake jobs so that they met the minimum income threshold of £29,000 on spousal visa applications. He has been jailed for five-and-a-half years for running the scam which resulted in 14 applications, five of which were granted. (The Times).

🍛 Birmingham’s first fully halal food court will open in Art Quarter in Digbeth next month, with Japanese and Middle-Eastern spot Kohitayn, and brunch and dessert cafe Kacao both confirmed for the new business. As well as food, the court will include a windowless, women-only hair salon where hijabi women can take off their headscarves in privacy. Founder Jordan Patel said the venture would provide for Muslim customers while helping to bridge social divides between different communities. "I think it's something we should all be proud of," he said. (BBC).

Quick Hits

🚨 Police are investigating after a teenage girl was threatened by a man with a knife in Quinton while she was on her way to school last week. (Birmingham Live).

💸 Birmingham City Council is expected to pay out more than £250 million to women who worked for the local authority, following a long-awaited equal pay settlement. “It's been a long road but we're finding some light at the end of the tunnel,” said teaching assistant Pamela Whatley. (BBC).

👮 West Midlands Police chief Craig Guildford is likely to be hauled back in front of parliament for further questioning around the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from November’s match against Aston Villa. (The Guardian).

Media picks

📰 One of the most exciting announcements for 2026 so far (at Dispatch HQ, anyway) has got to be The Streets tour, including a string of homecoming gigs at Brum’s O2 Academy. In a recent Financial Times interview, Mike Skinner discusses everything from dubstep to his love of pickles and whether or not he believes in life after death. About his style he says: “I can’t really do the sort of semi-reflective, you know, goggles-in-the-hood thing because I’m from Birmingham, and I feel people are going to think I want to have a fight.”

📰 Al Carns, the Selly Oak MP best known for inhaling a controversial gas to rapidly scale Mount Everest, was recently tipped as the leftfield option for a new Labour leader. While the former marine remains tight-lipped about whether or not he plans to throw his hat in the ring if and when the time comes, this interview in the Telegraph is enlightening in other ways. Carns, who was made defence minister five days after being elected in 2024, argues greater investment in defence is a must, with the new Military Intelligence Service central to that. “For too long people haven’t recognised that the military threats that we face on an international basis, if they materialise, can have the biggest impact on our citizens and our way of life,” he says.

Our to do list

Make a wish at the Winter Light Trail: Birmingham Botanical Gardens.

⛰️ On Tuesday, the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s winter lecture series hosts a talk on all things mountaineering. Tickets £0-£15.

🎭 Catch this three-Olivier-Award-winning adaptation of The Fiddler on the Roof at the Alexandra on Thursday when tickets are as low as £15.

🪩 On Friday, dust off your dancing shoes to end the final (hopefully) working day before the holidays. It’s the Digbeth Disco: Christmas Special at The Old Crown — and it’s free.

🎭 It wouldn’t be December without a production of A Christmas Carol. The collective Infinite Arts is staging three shows over Friday & Saturday. Tickets from £6 — use the code SCROOGE for 20% off.

✨ The Botanical Gardens is alight with festive joy — their Luminate Winter Light Trail is on from now until 1 Jan. Tickets from £17.95.

👻 Make like the Victorians and indulge in some spooky stories this Christmas. On Friday, the Birmingham ghost walk and dark history tour sets off from St Phillip's cathedral. Tickets £7.21.

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