Liverpool City Council is the governing body for the city of Liverpool in Merseyside, England. It consists of 85 councillors, for the city's 64 wards. Following a review by the Local Government Boundary Commission the number of wards increased to 64 at the elections on Thursday 4th May 2023. Three wards elect 3 councillors each, fifteen wards elect 2 councillors each and the remaining 46 wards each elect a single councillor, which brought down the total number of councillors to 85.
The council is currently controlled by the Labour Party. It is a constituent council of Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
History
Liverpool has been a town since 1207 when it was granted its first charter by King John. It has had a town corporation (the Corporation of Liverpool) since before the 19th century, and this was one of the corporations reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835.
Municipal Council
In 1835, Liverpool expanded into the village of Everton and then the township of Kirkdale in the 1860s. The corporation created a police force in 1836.
Liverpool was granted city status in 1880. When elected county councils were established in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, Liverpool was one of the cities to become a county borough, and thus administratively independent of Lancashire County Council, although the city remained part of Lancashire for ceremonial purposes until 1974.
In 1892 the city was given a Lord Mayor.
In 1895, Wavertree, Walton and parts of Toxteth and West Derby were incorporated into the city. Fazakerley (1904) and Gateacre (1913) followed, then the rest of West Derby known as West Derby Rural in 1928 and finally Speke in 1932.
Liverpool's first female councillor was Eleanor Rathbone, elected in 1909. Eighteen years later, Margaret Beavan became the first female Lord Mayor in 1927.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the council was run by the Conservatives, whose policies were responsible for Liverpool leading the way in many areas of social reform, for example, the provision of the first council-housing in Europe. Labour councillors were first elected to the council in 1905, but Liverpool was one of the last major cities in the UK in which the Labour Party gained control, which occurred in 1955. The Conservatives were able to briefly regain control in 1961, until 1963, and again in 1967 until 1972.
In 1974 Liverpool became a metropolitan borough within the new county of Merseyside. In 1986, the Merseyside County Council was abolished and its functions devolved to its districts, including Liverpool. Since 1986 Merseyside has continued to legally exist as a ceremonial county, but without a county council.
Liberal followed by Militant-dominated Labour
In the late 1970s, the city was run by the Liberal Party under Sir Trevor Jones. As part of their plans, a cost-cutting exercise was drawn up, to reduce the council's costs by 25%. In 1979, the Conservative Party won the general election. The new government intended to cut council spending but Liverpool City Council successfully negotiated an exception from this, on the grounds that they were already following government policy and cutting 25%.
During the 1980s, the Trotskyist Militant group gained control of Liverpool's Labour Party and the council, and attempted to challenge the national government on several issues including refusing to set a budget in 1985. The council then adopted a 'deficit budget' in which spending exceeded income, causing a financial crisis. The leadership of the Labour Party was drawn into the controversy, culminating with Neil Kinnock's speech to the Party Conference in 1985, denouncing Liverpool City Council without explicitly naming it. Derek Hatton, councillor for Netherley ward and Deputy Leader of the council, shouted "lies" at the platform, and Eric Heffer, MP for Liverpool Walton constituency, left the conference platform.
The Labour Party ultimately succeeded in expelling members of Militant, and Hatton himself was expelled from the Labour Party in June 1986.