Nick Forbes (born 8 November 1973) is a British Labour politician who served as the leader of

Newcastle City Council Newcastle City Council is the local government authority for the city and metropolitan borough of Newcastle upon Tyne. The council consists of 78 councillors, three for each of the 26 wards in the city. It is currently controlled by the Labou ...

between 2011 and 2022. He was a

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

for

Arthur's Hill Arthur's Hill is a district of Newcastle upon Tyne. It lies approximately 1 mile west of Newcastle City Centre. It is bordered by Fenham to the west, Elswick to the south, and Spital Tongues to the north west. It gives name to a Newcastle City C ...

between 2018 and 2022, and previous to that for the Westgate and Moorside areas of Newcastle. He was the leader of Labour Group on the

Local Government Association The Local Government Association (LGA) is the national membership body for local authorities. Its core membership is made up of 339 English councils and the 22 Welsh councils through the Welsh Local Government Association. The LGA is p ...

, the national membership body for local authorities. Forbes also served as the LGA's Senior Vice Chair. He was the leader of the Labour group on Newcastle City Council from 2007 until March 2022. As a result of being deselected by the Labour branch in his Arthur's Hill seat ahead of the 2022 council election, Forbes stepped down as Labour group leader. He stepped down as leader of the city council on 5 May 2022. Nick Kemp has replaced him as the Labour leader in the city.

Early life

Nick Forbes was born on 8 November 1973. He attended Wolsingham Comprehensive School in

Weardale Weardale is a dale, or valley, on the east side of the Pennines in County Durham, England. Large parts of Weardale fall within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) – the second-largest AONB in England and Wales. Th ...

, County Durham, before studying social and political sciences at

Selwyn College, Cambridge Selwyn College, Cambridge (formally Selwyn College in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1882 by the Selwyn Memorial Committee in memory of George Augustus Selwyn ( ...

, where he obtained an

upper second class honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variat ...

degree. He later studied for a management diploma from

Sheffield Hallam University Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The university is based on two sites; the City Campus is located in the city centre near Sheffield railway station, while the Collegiate ...

, and a master's degree in Music from the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's underg ...

Political career

Nick Forbes became a councillor in May 2000, representing the Westgate part of the city, and went on to become leader of the Labour group in May 2007. In 2011, he became leader of the council following the 2011 local elections which saw the Liberal Democrats suffer heavy losses across the city, as well as nationally. He has been an extensive critic of the government's fiscal policy of cuts in funding to local government, and defended a policy of particularly cutting arts funding in the city in response. Forbes is critical of

Universal Credit Universal Credit is a United Kingdom social security payment. It is means-tested and is replacing and combining six benefits for working-age households with a low income: income-related Employment and Support Allowance, income-based Jobseeker' ...

. In February 2016, Forbes succeeded

Jim McMahon James Robert McMahon Jr. (born August 21, 1959) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons, most notably with the Chicago Bears. McMahon played college football at BYU, where he was ...

as Labour’s leader of the

. According to the LGA's website, Forbes "has played a leading role in raising the profile of local government in a time of austerity made economic growth a key feature of his council, securing new financial powers by negotiating one of the first round of City Deals with government. He has worked with leaders from across England to secure devolution packages for local government." In 2019, Forbes unsuccessfully sought selection to be Labour's candidate in the 2019 North of Tyne mayoral election, losing to Jamie Driscoll. He is openly gay and a patron of LGBT+ Labour.

Honours

Forbes was made a Commander of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(CBE) in the

2019 New Year Honours The 2019 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...

for services to local government.

References

External links

*
Authored articles
for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Forbes, Nick 1973 births Alumni of the Open University Alumni of Sheffield Hallam University Alumni of Selwyn College, Cambridge Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Councillors in Newcastle upon Tyne Labour Party (UK) councillors Living people Politicians from Newcastle upon Tyne Leaders of local authorities of England English LGBT politicians