Explanation and context: This is a copy of the agreement reached shortly after the May 2026 local elections between independent councillor for West Hill, Malcolm Grimston, and the Conservative Party in Wandsworth. The elections left the Conservative one seat short of a majority, with 29 seats, compared to the Labour opposition, on 28 seats.
The document is most notable for several things: firstly, its insistence on honesty around finances. This followed a difficult few years in which the response by the council to a growing financial crises brought in partly by overspend by the Labour Administration, and partly by central government plans to correct a longstanding imbalance in local council funding under its Fair Funding Review, was to simply ignore the issue publicly and continue to claim – falsely – that the council had frozen council tax and would continue to do so.
The document also insists on changes to the Constitution of the Council, also made under the Labour Administration, which had concentrated power in the Leader’s Office and limited the ability of local councillors to hold the council to account. Grimston insisted as part of the agreement that these be reversed, and an Annex outlines some of those changes.
And lastly, the document insists that the political reality of the situation – a very close split between the parties – be recognised by giving the opposition party seats as chairs of council committees and a speaking role at cabinet.
Confidence and Supply Agreement
The Conservative Councillor Group (‘the administration’) on Wandsworth Council and Cllr Malcolm Grimston agree to abide by the terms outlined below.
Council finances
The administration agrees to be honest at all times with residents about the council’s funding position. It will take the difficult decisions necessary to stabilise the council’s finances. In particular, the council tax rate required in April 2027 will be outlined in July 2026, as part of the Spending Review process. This will give residents time to prepare for changes to their bills.
Voting
Cllr Grimston agrees to vote with the administration on the following:
- The appointment of the Leader of the Council.
- The appointment and membership of the regulatory, overview and scrutiny and other committees of the council.
- Any vote of confidence in the administration.
- The budget, council-tax setting and key financial decisions.
- Any constitutional changes that align with the principles in the annex below, but not necessarily other constitutional changes.
Given the composition of the new council, Cllr Grimston also agrees not to oppose the group’s nominee for Mayor for 2026/27.
Committee chairs and allocations
The administration agrees to:
- Allocate the role of chair on two overview and scrutiny committees to the Labour Group, namely the Environment committee and the Children’s committee.
- Allocate the role of chair of the Audit Committee to the Labour Group.
- Allocate one of its own positions on the general purposes committee to Cllr Grimston (i.e. two Labour members, two Conservatives and Cllr Grimston).
These allocations will be reviewed in May 2027.
Opposition speakers have a distinct role, parallel to cabinet members, and will not be eligible to be chairs of committees.
The administration agrees to allocate at least 48% of the total seats on ordinary committees to the Labour Group when the latter has 28 councillors. No committee size or allocation will be unfair or unrepresentative.
Constitutional changes
The administration agrees to make every effort to work in a cross-party manner on the constitution, within the parameters of the annex. All potential changes will be brought to the General Purposes Committee, before being recommended to the council. A majority involving either more than one group, or one group and an Independent, would be required to make any additional changes in this council term.
By-elections
In the event that a by-election or other change results in the composition of the council changing materially, it is open to Cllr Grimston or the administration to withdraw from the terms of this agreement.
Managing attendance
It is recognised that the close balance of the council will put strain on some members, particularly in cases of illness, family issues or other problems.
Subject to further discussion, the administration agrees to introduce a ‘pairing’ system with the opposition, allowing members to be absent, by agreement, without altering the balance at a meeting. This system will involve the names of paired members being submitted to the chief executive, prior to a meeting, and those members being made ineligible to vote.
The administration and Cllr Grimston also agree to support a system of named substitutes for the ordinary committees, who will be listed underneath the committee memberships. Any arrangements for OSCs will be subject to further discussion.
CLLR ALED RICHARDS-JONES
CLLR MALCOLM GRIMSTON
26 May 2026
Annex on changes to the Constitution
As general principles, the changes should:
- Allow all backbench members, of all groups and none, to be treated equally
- Create more open routes for questions and speakers, less dependent on the Group Whips
- Ensure that relevant rules and the Standing Orders are rewritten in plain English
- Reduce complexity and remove ambiguities
- Futureproof our procedures for a multi-group council.
All of the changes outlined in this annex are intended to be passed at an extraordinary meeting of the council, on 22 July 2026, subject to a simple-majority vote and following discussion at the General Purposes Committee.
Once these changes are passed, any future changes to the constitution in this council term would require a majority vote in favour that includes either (a) members of two or more political groups or (b) a single political group and an independent councillor, save that:
- removal of the guillotine procedure for OSCs, and
- removal of a guillotine motion at council meetings
will both be subject to a confirmatory, simple-majority vote at the first ordinary meeting of the council held in the calendar year of 2027. If either removal is not confirmed, alternative measures that reinstate guillotine arrangements will automatically take effect.
The changes will restrict the exploitation of ‘no confidence’ mechanisms, through appropriate notice period following a vacancy or defection. In the case of a vacancy, a by-election would need to be held before a motion could be submitted.
In the following areas, the changes will:
General Purposes Committee
- Restore the role of the committee, so all constitutional changes must go through the General Purposes Committee before being recommended to the council.
- This will be enacted at the annual meeting of the council on 27 May 2026.
Overview and Scrutiny Committees
- Abolish the General OSC in July 2026 and restore call-in to the other committees.
- Require all non-urgent key decisions to go through an OSC before going to the Cabinet, restoring pre-decision scrutiny.
- Allow a safeguarded urgency route, e.g. this might trigger an unscheduled meeting with the relevant cabinet member.
- Remove the guillotine procedure, subject to a confirmatory vote in 2027.
- Give the OSCs fuller, stand-alone procedure rules, not rules that apply mutatis mutandis from the Standing Orders for full Council.
- Start the main business of each OSC with a short update from the Cabinet member/s (limited to 5 minutes) and questions (limited to 20 minutes).
- The Leader of the Council must, if invited to do so by the committee, attend one Finance OSC each municipal year for additional questions (limited to 30 minutes).
- Ensure any items placed on the agenda by members of the committee are discussed immediately after questions and agenda items on key decisions.
- All other business and items for information must follow the items above.
The Cabinet
- Make the executive meetings meaningful and rename throughout as Cabinet.
- Allow the Leader of the Opposition and relevant opposition speaker to participate on each item.
- Rewrite the executive procedure rules to guarantee these rights.
- For a key decision to be referred to full council, the relevant opposition speaker will be required to attend and make an objection. An alternative mechanism for other councillors to refer will be established, e.g. five signatures, with one of those objecting also attending the Cabinet meeting.
- All public delegations be made at Cabinet meetings, though OSCs would still be able to call individuals or groups to give evidence.
Delegated powers
- Restore transparency on smaller decisions.
- Decisions on anything below the £1 million key-decision threshold and above £150k will be taken by Cabinet Members rather than being delegated to officers.
- A rolling list of decisions will be published, with a mechanism for any councillor to trigger a fuller report, for referral to the next relevant OSC.
Written questions
- Written questions will be decoupled from council meetings and answered via a rolling process, normally with a 15 working-day deadline for responding to the member.
- All proceeding questions and answers will be published with the next council agenda, for information.
- Increase the limit on formal written questions to four questions per member per committee cycle (additional questions may still be asked as member enquiries).
- Questions must be submitted by email by the individual councillor asking the question.
Members’ rights
- Ensure that all councillors can access gold papers, without needing relevant OSC membership or establishing a need-to-know.
- Revise procedures for calling special meetings of committees.
Council meetings
- Should only handle statutory and referred business, allowing proper debate on each item, with a mechanism to prevent more than two referrals being debated.
- Completely rewritten Standing Orders that, nevertheless, preserve and clarify the use of points of order, points of personal explanation, interventions, named votes and the ability to table amendments.
- Remove the guillotine procedure, subject to a confirmatory vote in 2027, and limit question-be-put powers to specific circumstances. This would include guaranteed speakers having been heard before the motion is admissible.
Questions to the Leader
- Ordinary meetings will have a Leader’s question time on one-sentence questions submitted two days before the meeting.
- Session to last 20 minutes, with maximum of one minute for an answer, 30 seconds for the questioner’s supplementary and one minute for a further answer.
- Should an initial answer from the Leader, or an intended supplementary, require more than the allotted time, permission may be sought from the Mayor prior to the meeting. The Mayor will announce the time to be added before the relevant question and extend the length of the session accordingly.
- The first question will be allotted for the leader of the opposition, who will have the right to ask three supplementary questions.
- Remainder by ballot, alternating between the administration group and others. Members must individually email the Mayor’s office to ‘put in’ by a deadline.
- Ballot open to scrutiny by any member on a set day at a set time.
- It will be at the Mayor’s discretion to call other supplementary questions and other members, if the list is exhausted within time.
(Cabinet and written questions already addressed above.)
Business
- Guaranteed speeches for the relevant cabinet member and opposition speaker on each item, if the right is exercised.
- Two further guaranteed speeches of five minutes (one from the administration group and one other councillor), if members ‘put in’ to speak. Members must individually email the Mayor’s office by a deadline.
- If the slots are oversubscribed, they will be filled by a ballot process open to scrutiny by any member, on a set day at a set time. Once a member has been chosen in such a ballot, they will not be eligible to apply for a guaranteed slot on items of business at the subsequent three Council meetings.
- After these four guaranteed speeches, other members may be called at the Mayor’s discretion, with the Mayor having some regard to others who ‘put in’.
- To be called to speak, a member must have been in the chamber throughout the relevant debate and should remain in their place until the end (with discretion for personal comfort).
- The Mayor must indicate when the final speaker is being called.
- Amendment procedure with one 3-minute speech by the proposer, a response and limits on the overall number of amendments permitted.
Motions
- A ballot process as above, but six speeches of five minutes, including the relevant cabinet member and opposition speaker by right.
- Only two motions (i.e. from the administration and one other group) to be debated in an ordinary meeting. The order of the motions is to alternate between meetings, as currently.
- The administration and opposition may table an additional motion each per meeting, for a vote only.
- The Mayor may take additional speeches, alternating between the administration group and others, at their discretion, guided by the list of those who ‘put in’.
- The Mayor must indicate when the final speaker is being called.
- To be called to speak, a member must have been in the chamber throughout the relevant debate and should remain in their place until the end (with discretion for personal comfort).
- The motion’s proposer must speak first and is allowed a three minute wind-up.
Statements
- On exceptional matters, and with the Mayor’s permission, the leader of the council or a relevant cabinet member may make a statement to the council.
- The leader of the opposition or relevant opposition speaker would have the right to respond, at the same length.
- It would then be open for other members to ask questions (maximum 1 minute) and get a response, alternating between the administration group and others.
- Members would be called at the Mayor’s discretion, with councillors indicating their willingness to ask a question by standing.
- A motion may be moved commending the statement to the council.
Matters of local interest
- Same timings as now, but with the non-administration group slot opened to all councillors.
- The relevant cabinet member for responses could be set on rotation.
- Proposer of each slot called at the Mayor’s discretion.
Task and finish group reports
- The chair of a report completed since the last meeting would have three minutes to outline the findings and any recommendations.
- The relevant cabinet member would respond.
Adjournment
- At the end of all business and voting.
- Alternates between a member of the administration group and another councillor, for each ordinary meeting.
- Proposals to be submitted by individual councillors, by a deadline, with one selected by the Mayor at their personal discretion.
- A speech of up to ten minutes, with the ability for others to participate, and a five-minute maximum response from the relevant cabinet member.
- No division permitted.
Budget Council
- An ordinary meeting of the council but with special provisions, e.g. no motions.
- Re-examination of timings and committee cycles to make January and March less unusual.
- No scheduled extraordinary meetings.
Extraordinary meetings
- Clarification of the method for calling an extraordinary meeting, the scheduling process and the agenda format.