Nicholas Ian Forbes (born 8 November 1973) is a British politician who served as the Leader of the Labour Group of the

Local Government Association The Local Government Association (LGA) is the national membership body for local government in England, local authorities in England and Wales. Its core membership is made up of 317 English councils and the 22 Welsh councils through the ...

from 2016 to 2022. He was Leader of

Newcastle City Council Newcastle City Council is the local authority for the city of Newcastle upon Tyne in the ceremonial county of Tyne and Wear in North East England. Newcastle has had a council from medieval times, which has been reformed on numerous occasions. ...

from 2011 to 2022. In 2020, Forbes was appointed to Labour Leader

Keir Starmer Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and lawyer who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2024 and as Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He previously ...

's Shadow Cabinet, serving until 2022

Early life

Nicholas Ian Forbes was born on 8 November 1973 in

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

. He is openly gay and a patron of

LGBT+ Labour LGBT+ Labour is the socialist society (Labour Party), socialist society officially representing the LGBTQ wing of the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party in the United Kingdom. The purpose of the organisation is to campaign within the Labour Party, ...

. Forbes 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. The u ...

, County Durham, before studying social and political sciences at

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

, where he obtained an upper second class honours 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 station, Sheffield railway station, whil ...

, and a master's degree in music from the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a 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 undergraduate ...

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 based Welfare state in the United Kingdom, social security payment. It is Means test, means-tested and is replacing and combining six benefits, for working-age households with a low income: income-related Emp ...

. In February 2016, Forbes succeeded

Jim McMahon James Robert McMahon Jr. (born August 21, 1959) is an American former professional American football, football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons, most notably with the Chicago Bears. McMahon played col ...

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." Forbes also served as the LGA's Senior Vice Chair. In 2019, Forbes unsuccessfully sought selection to be Labour's candidate in the 2019 North of Tyne mayoral election, losing to Jamie Driscoll. As a result of being

deselected Preselection is the process by which a candidate is selected, usually by a political party, to contest an election for political office. It is also referred to as candidate selection. It is a fundamental function of political parties. The presel ...

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.

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 valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(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 celebrati ...

for services to local government.

References

External links

*
Authored articles
for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' {{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 gay politicians