Councillor Shabina Bano joins the Liberal Democrats

At 4.25pm today, the Birmingham Liberal Democrats council group welcomed Councillor Shabina Bano who has resigned from Labour with immediate effect.

Commenting on this, Group Leader Roger Harmer said “I am delighted to welcome Councillor Shabina Bano as a member of the Birmingham Liberal Democrat Group. I know her as a dedicated ward councillor who has worked hard to represent the interests of the residents of Small Heath to the council, and I look forward to supporting her to continue to do this.”

“Shabina’s resignation statement is truly shocking. Nobody should be subjected to bullying and misogyny. The fact that Shabina has consistently raised these issues, and they have been repeatedly ignored or sidelined, is appalling.

“Even by the standards of Birmingham Labour’s failures, this is grim. We have seen over the past year that they are unfit to run Birmingham, but this is clear evidence that they are not even fit to manage themselves.

“The current Labour administration has had its time and has clearly failed. Residents are fed up with the constant chaos and financial mismanagement and it’s clear that their internal factionalism and disfunction is a significant cause of these failures. The 2026 elections cannot come soon enough.”