The curious case of the missing councillor

What's going on with Labour's missing councillor?

For the past 18 months, constituents in Allens Cross have been puzzled by the absence of Labour councillor, Jack Deakin. Last week, The Dispatch reported that Deakin had surfaced at Council House, turning up to sign a register, before immediately leaving — the bare minimum required every six months to retain a councillor’s stipend and prevent a by-election being called in the relevant ward.

In the wake of publication, we’ve heard more about the fuss surrounding Deakin’s absence, and anger directed at Labour, who opposition parties allege are unwilling to let the 27 year-old stand down, because they fear his vacant seat could be claimed by Reform UK (Labour has not responded to requests for comment on this specific claim). 

Insiders say Deakin is suffering from ill health — which hasn’t been communicated to constituents. Either way, unhappy councillors and Allens Cross residents alike seem to hold Labour responsible, rather than Deakin himself. The Dispatch has been told that Deakin’s appearance last week has been raised with the council’s Chief Legal Officer, who reportedly decided signing the register satisfied local authority attendance rules. 

But now the council’s Conservative group has moved to issue a formal complaint to BCC’s Standards Committee. Local Tories have branded Deakin a “ghost councillor” and claimed that Labour is “putting their own party interest ahead of Brummies.” Councillor Robert Alden, leader of the Conservative Group, told The Dispatch that: “Birmingham Labour have failed in their duty of care to the residents of Allen Cross, leaving them without a working councillor and [have] seemingly failed to provide the councillor support either.” 

Over a dozen sources, including constituents and councillors, say that not only is Deakin absent, but he actually lives in Leeds (The Dispatch was unable to verify this claim first hand). Paul Smith, a Conservative campaigner in Allens Cross, told The Dispatch that: “The people I speak to are very disappointed that the councillor ha[s] been absent for so long. He’s not doing anything in the ward, no surgeries or anything. He’s uncontactable.” 

It’s not just the Tories up in arms either. “I live in Allens Cross and I can’t tell you how angry many of us are about the absence of Jack Deakin, utter disgrace and bordering on a banana republic,” one constituent told former Liberal Democrat councillor, Martin Mullaney.

If a by-election was called, there’s a chance Reform could win it; during the 2024 general election the party performed well in the Northfield constituency which contains Allens Cross, winning 21.0% of the vote.

Both Jack Deakin and Birmingham Labour have been approached for comment. A spokesperson for West Midlands Labour told The Dispatch that: “Cllr Deakin’s attendance at council meetings is a matter for him and the Labour whip. Labour is committed to standing up for the residents of Allens Cross after £1bn of Conservative cuts to Birmingham.” 

The Birmingham conservative who popularised 'Red Toryism' and is blamed for the hostile environment

This week, I’ve been reading a pamphlet that was impossibly hard to get hold of, even though it was printed in 2012. Our Joe: Joseph Chamberlain’s Conservative Legacy was authored by Nick Timothy, a recently elected MP for West Suffolk. But Timothy’s roots are in Tile Cross — and his new job as an MP is not his first brush with politics. Just under a decade ago, he was seen as a leading intellectual trying to move the Conservative party beyond both the free market economics of Maragret Thatcher and the social liberalism of the David Cameron years. While he was unsuccessful in transforming the Conservatives in his image, Timothy’s ideas, influenced by his Birmingham upbringing, have caught on across the Channel in Friedrich Merz’s Germany and across the pond within the JD Vance wing of the GOP. 

He might now be embracing the life of a countryside MP, but Nick Timothy hails from Birmingham’s working-class suburbs. He grew up in a red brick Tile Cross terrace, the son of a steelworker and a secretary, before getting lucky with entrance to King Edward VI Aston (a grammar school, not to be confused with the similarly named fee-paying institution) and going on to study politics at Sheffield University. Matt Murtagh, a lecturer in photography at Cadbury Sixth Form College, was in the same year at Aston during the early to mid-1990s and remembers him as being the only other “working class kid at Aston amidst a sea of doctors and lawyer’s kids bused in from Sutton Coldfield.” 

Margaret Thatcher had only just been unceremoniously ejected from her long tenure as prime minister and like many of his generation, Timothy was heavily influenced by her, notes Murtagh. He came off as a: “socially liberal Thatcherite, always in the corner of the library reading The Telegraph while I was head first into The Guardian.” 

Two decades later, Timothy had swapped the two positions. By the time he became one of the most influential people in the country, appointed chief of staff to new PM Theresa May in 2016, he was being dubbed a ‘Red Tory’ by the UK press: socially conservative but interested in redistributive economic policies. Timothy had previously advised May when she was Home Secretary under David Cameron from 2010 to 2015. His legacy is a controversial one — some hold him responsible for the UK’s ‘hostile environment' policy (which led to the Windrush scandal), the social care liability debacle (whereby any assets over £100K, owned by an individual would be liable for funding their social care needs) and May’s controversial ‘Citizens of Nowhere’ 2016 speech in Birmingham which adapted the journalist David Goodhart’s notion of the world being divided into ‘somewheres’ and ‘anywheres.’ 

In Goodhart’s view people see the world in two ways: either as a set of deeply rooted places or as interchangeable economic backdrops. For his part, Timothy tells me he rejects the Red Tory label, calling himself instead a “one nation Conservative.” I ask him why he’s now an MP in Suffolk, rather than his native Birmingham, assuming he is one of Goodhart’s “somewheres.” He tells me his mother has family in Suffolk.  

Yet, Birmingham has actively shaped Timothy’s politics. In an essay, written for Conservative Home, just before he entered Downing Street in 2016, Timothy coined the term ‘Erdington modernisation’. The idea was creating a modernisation programme built around the skilled working class and populism, which he contrasted with ‘Soho modernisation’ pioneered by David Cameron and focused on social liberalism, and an ‘Easterhouse modernisation,’ named after the Glasgow council estate, focused on poverty eradication. At the time, sporting a Rasputin-like beard, Timothy was seen as the Conservative party’s ideas man, being dubbed “May’s Muse” by Prospect.  

Taking a cue from Birmingham, Timothy suggested that the Tories seek out ordinary working class voters, not destitute, but struggling, who he imagined to be in places like his home city. He writes that the party should govern for: “the people whose lives are most affected – for better and worse – by politics. They can’t opt out of the NHS if they find themselves in a dirty hospital or at the end of a long waiting list. They are the ones who find themselves out of work, on reduced hours, or with never-ending pay freezes when the economy goes wrong.” Timothy was clearly on to something, and The Economist picked up on the essay, charting the links between Birmingham and Red Toryism in an article entitled ‘The Sage of Birmingham’ featuring a cartoon of Timothy dressed up as Joseph Chamberlain. 

The comparison was obvious; Timothy is not the first Birmingham Tory to embrace economic ideas that hew to the left. The UK’s second city was the capital of the ‘civic gospel’ and ‘municipal socialism’ in the late 19th century. Policies aimed at improving the lot of the city’s working class were often pioneered by radical liberals who had drifted towards the Conservative Party over questions of Irish autonomy. Joseph Chamberlain was one such radical liberal. Chamberlain is a man of our time in many ways. Indeed, his focus on improving Birmingham through practical means are cited with much nostalgia in the present, when considering the current state of the city. Meanwhile, Chamberlain’s passion for tariffs and industrial protectionism chime with Donald Trump’s trade policies. 

“As the radical mayor of Birmingham,” Timothy writes in Our Joe, “Chamberlain transformed Britain’s second city from a squalid workshop to the best governed city in the world.” In 2012, when the book went to press, Timothy’s topic seemed obscure. Who really remembered, or cared, about this semi-obscure late 19th century mayor? Yet, from tariffs to the need to rejuvenate Birmingham, Chamberlain has come roaring back into relevancy. 

Leading Conservatives in the policy realm and in the West Midlands tell me that Timothy is considered, internally, as a very bright ‘ideas’ politician with potential. However, many also point out that he’s been behind the scenes for a long time as an advisor and hasn’t really held any leadership positions. Given the current electoral fortunes of the Conservative Party and the likelihood that it could be swallowed by Reform, might Timothy’s star rise again? If he plays his cards right, he could prove himself a big fish, in an increasingly tiny, Tory pond. 

Akhmed Yakoob's associate has been charged with money laundering. Is he the son of the Birmingham Central Mosque chairman?

Last week, Akhmed Yakoob, politician, solicitor and leader of the Independent Candidate’s Alliance, was charged with money laundering offences dating back to 2020, along with his associate accountant, Nabeel Afzal. A source tipped The Dispatch off that Nabeel is the son of former Lord Mayor of Birmingham, ex-Labour councillor and Birmingham Central Mosque chairman, Muhammad Afzal. We found some circumstantial evidence on Companies House: a Nabeel Afzal, whose age and neighbourhood of residence matches that of Yakoob’s associate, shares a business address with Muhammad Afzal via a company called Sultan Estates, Ltd.

Afzal senior has also recently been in hot water, when it was discovered that he broke electoral law by handing out dates to potential voters. Consequently, he was suspended from the Labour Party and then stripped of his honorary alderman title after a court case found camera footage of him handing out gifts to constituents. Afzal has not yet replied to requests for comment directed via Birmingham Central Mosque. 

In Yardley, populists are doing battle 

Yardley is a big and diverse constituency, stretching from the dense Victorian terraces of Small Heath to the semi-detached, interwar, suburbia of Sheldon. And now it’s a battlefield. 

In last year’s general election, Labour MP Jess Phillips came within a cat’s whisker of losing her seat, holding onto it with a victory margin of only 1.9%. And right behind her were two populist parties. 

In second place, the Workers’ Party which describes itself as economically socialist and socially conservative garnered 29.3% of the vote, standing former student activist Jody McIntyre as their candidate. And in third were Reform UK, with 14%. Now current MRP polls — which should be taken with a large grain of salt — have written Labour out of the picture altogether, showing the Workers Party and Reform neck and neck in Yardley. 

Just to complicate matters, Yardley, despite recent surges for the Workers Party and Reform, also reliably votes in a large crop of Liberal Democrat councillors at the local level. And, for a long time, the ward has returned Phillips — a famously centre-left politician — to Westminster. But change may be afoot. Several Yardley constituents told The Dispatch they felt Phillips was missing in action in the area.

“Never set eyes on her. I remember when John Hemming (Lib Dem) was our MP. He was always out and about in the community,” one Yardley resident told us. “Over 16 years I've lived in Yardley and only ever seen her on TV,” another joked. Jess Phillips has been approached for comment. 

Birmingham and West Midlands politicos to watch (a very opinionated list)

From the big beasts and dark horses to scrappy underdogs — The Dispatch tells you who might be calling the shots in Birmingham and beyond in the next few years.

Shabana Mahmood

Shabana Mahmood has been Labour MP for Ladywood since 2010, during the first intake of members of the House of Commons after Gordon Brown’s election defeat that year. Her fourteen year stint in opposition ended last May when she was made Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. On the whole, Mahmood has stayed away from media headlines: unlike other Birmingham MPs Jess Phillips and Al Carns. Despite not climbing the ranks of official government postings during Labour’s 1997 to 2010 stint in government, Mahmood has proved a fairly effective operator. She is one of the first millennials to hold a major cabinet position. Within the party she is seen as a Keir Starmer loyalist, and she has tacked towards a broad brush ‘law and order’ style to appeal to both Reform voters and more socially conservative Muslim populations in Ladywood. She narrowly kept her Ladywood seat in last year’s general election when she faced off against Gaza Independent Akhmed Yakoob (more on him below). On current national MRP polling, Mahmood looks likely to be one of only six Labour MPs to keep their seats in the West Midlands come 2029.  

Shakeel Afsar

Shakeel Afsar has made a name for himself first as a campaigner against LGBTQ lesson content in a Sparkhill primary school, and then Akhmed Yakoob’s deputy, helping to run Birmingham’s Independent Candidate Alliance. Outside of politics, Afsar is well known as a property developer in the city, describing himself as: “The Landlords’ LANDLORD,” on LinkedIn. Afsar recently led protests against the India-UK trade deal and conflict in Kashmir outside Birmingham’s Indian Consulate. The Independent Candidate Alliance is separate from the Jeremy Corbyn-led Westminster Independent Alliance, and is targeting Birmingham council seats in next year’s local elections, campaigning on issues like fly-tipping and the bin strikes. Asfar performed poorly when he stood for Westminster last year as a Gaza Independent candidate, going up against incumbent Labour MP Tahir Ali for Hall Green and Moseley. Compared to Akhmed Yakoob, he only gained 17.2% of the vote. But with boss Yakoob facing money laundering charges, and Ali facing constituents alienated by the bin strikes, we might expect to see Afsar taking up a larger role in Birmingham’s independents movement.    

Pat McFadden

Patrick McFadden has been described as “the most powerful Labour politician [you’ve] never heard of,” as an “éminence grise,” and as "the old hand” of the Labour Party. McFadden — who came up in Scottish Labour — has been MP for Wolverhampton South East since 2005 and is seen as a veteran of the Tony Blair years, serving as his political secretary between 2002 and 2005. Despite being seen as a consummate Blairite, McFadden is actually a member of the trade unionist ‘old right,’ and very West Midlands, Labour First grouping, not the New Labour faction Progress. Labour First is strongly linked to West Midlands MP John Spellar and other local figures like Tom Watson, Ian Austin, Khalid Mahmood and Ruth Smeeth. McFadden led Labour’s successful general election campaign and is currently in charge of shaking up the civil service and Whitehall (plus, he’s the current Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster). Although he managed to keep hold of his seat, one of the most deprived in the country, by a respectable margin, Reform is a growing threat in his patch — they clinched 22.8% of the vote last May. Whatever strategy Labour attempts to overcome Reform (so far, just tacking to the right), McFadden’s fingerprints will be on it.         

Jack Brookes

Twice Reform candidate for Erdington in a 2022 by-election and in the 2024 general election, Brookes has managed to bump himself up from 4th place with 1.7% of the vote to second place with 22.9% of the polls within the space of two years. He now presents a real challenge to Erdington’s Labour MP Paulette Hamilton. Current national MRP polling puts Erdington firmly within Reform’s grasp. Brookes is representative of a broader trend that has been dubbed the ‘Gen Z wave,’ through which young men, increasingly, convert to Reform. He graduated from Queen’s University, Belfast with a degree in economics in 2020. His Twitter feed features a call proclaiming: “Death to Central Banks, fiat money, FRB and Tyranny” and a post calling Michael Gove a “cokehead.”      

Gurinder Josan

Josan was elected Labour MP for Smethwick in 2024, after serving for a number of years on Sandwell Council. He has historically been on the right of the party, associating with Labour First, and was one of a swathe of Keir Starmer allies selected to run for Westminster seats in 2024 (in a process that raised eyebrows). Josan is interesting for a number of reasons. First, he’s the second biggest landlord in the House of Commons, according to The Financial Times, with a portfolio of eight rental properties. According to The Register of Members' Financial Interests, three of these properties are commercial sites in Sandwell and five are residential units in Birmingham. Josan is also part of the second wave of Sikhs elected to parliament, alongside figures like Jas Athwal (another landlord), Warinder Singh Juss, and Jeevun Sandher. For a long time, Josan was a trustee at the Khalistan-supporting GNG Smethwick and there’s been factional conflict over control of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Sikhs between the pro-Khalistan Sikh Federation and the less nationalistic Network of Sikh Organisations. This conflict centred on a dispute between Edgbaston MP Preet Gill and Lord Singh: potentially ignited by the fact that they were two of the most prominent Sikhs in parliament at that time with strongly divided views on India and ethnic identity. Sources have told The Dispatch that Josan is considered a more neutral voice in this dispute: with connections in the Federation and Network. However, SKWAWKBOX has reported that there has previously been tension between Josan and Gill. If he can avoid losing his seat to Reform, Josan could be well placed to chart a middle way for British Sikhs in the House of Commons.