Council remains leaderless after 2nd failed election

Council remains leaderless after 2nd failed election40 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleCharles Heslett,West Yorkshire political reporter, at Huddersfield Town HallandAlex Moss,YorkshireBBCReform UK became the largest party on Kirklees Council in the local electionsKirklees Council is expected to remain without a leader for more than a month after councillors failed for a second time to agree who should be appointed to the role.A meeting on Thursday again ended in stalemate with neither the Reform UK group leader Sarah Wood or Green Party head Andrew Cooper securing the majority needed to be in charge.It comes after last week's annual meeting when councillors failed to decide who should lead the authority.A further vote will now take place on 15 July, with the council's chief executive taking charge in the interim. Following the AGM on 21 May, Wood was widely mocked after a clip of the meeting showed her admitting she did not understand many of the council processes.That meeting was dominated by lengthy exchanges over procedure and confusion about the voting process.At the reconvened meeting on Thursday, councillors returned to the chamber in an attempt to select a leader for the second time. Councillor Sarah Wood, who is leader of the Reform UK group on Kirklees CouncilDuring a series of questions, Wood said she "didn't need to know everything in council" because there were 68 other councillors to collaboratively offer support, while Cooper spoke about the length of his tenure, noting that his first election was in 1999.More questions were posed on how the candidates could offer "confidence and stability", which Wood attempted to raise as a "point of order" after she viewed the question as repetitive. Cooper answered that his record "stood for itself" before Wood stood again to speak.Private ballots were held for each councillor, but with each receiving 29 votes, neither gained a majority.Speaking...