Saleem was removed 26 to 21 on 14 September and Lib Dem Amjid Ali elected; his 10-strong Executive followed on 24 September. Every date and vote here.

Update, 9 October 2026: the Luton Borough Council leadership challenge is over, and the new administration has started changing course: on 5 October its Executive put the Bury Park red route trial on hold pending an independent study (details below). The next meeting in the Full Council series is listed for Tuesday 10 November.

Update, 3 October 2026: the Luton Borough Council leadership challenge is over. Councillors voted 26 to 21, with one abstention, to remove Cllr Saleem on 14 September, and elected Liberal Democrat Cllr Amjid Ali as Leader. He named his Executive on 24 September, with Independent Alliance leader Cllr Rob Roche as Deputy Leader. Read our report on the result and the full list of new portfolio holders. The preview below, published on 10 September, is kept as it was written, with the timeline brought up to date.

Luton councillors will vote on Monday 14 September on whether to remove the Leader of the council, Cllr Tahmina Saleem. If they do, they will elect someone else in her place the same evening.

The Mayor has called an extraordinary meeting of Full Council for 6pm in the Council Chamber at the Town Hall. The summons lists one item of business, in two parts:

  • to pass a resolution to remove the Executive Leader from office
  • to elect another member of the council to be the Executive Leader

The agenda does not name a candidate. The council had published no news release about the meeting when we checked on 10 September.

The Luton Borough Council leadership challenge, in order

The challenge ran over 11 days and three meetings. The dates, taken from the council’s own summonses, webcasts and news releases:

  • Thursday 3 September. A councillor moved, without notice, that the Executive Leader be removed from office. Standing Order 15.1(5) allows that motion without notice. A roll-call vote went 24 for, 21 against, three absences, so the matter went forward to an extraordinary meeting.
  • Monday 7 September. The Executive met in the middle of the challenge and decided to press on with the Bury Park red route trial, against the scrutiny board’s recommendation to postpone it.
  • Monday 14 September. Full Council met in extraordinary session at 6pm and voted 26 to 21, with one abstention, to remove Cllr Tahmina Saleem. It then elected Liberal Democrat Cllr Amjid Ali as Executive Leader.
  • Tuesday 15 September. The council confirmed the change, quoting Cllr Ali saying he was “both honoured and humbled to be given this opportunity”.

Cllr Saleem had been Leader since the annual meeting on 19 May, so the challenge removed her three months and 26 days into the job. No group holds a majority in Luton, and the administration that replaced her is a Liberal Democrat, Conservative and independent grouping.

The new Executive, named 24 September

The council’s 15 September announcement said Cllr Ali would confirm his Cabinet “in the coming days”. It came nine days later. The council’s 24 September release lists a 10-member Executive: six Liberal Democrats, three Independent Alliance councillors and one Conservative. Labour is the official opposition, led by Cllr Saleem.

Portfolio Councillor Group
Leader Amjid Ali Liberal Democrat
Deputy Leader; Housing, Temporary Accommodation and Building Control Rob Roche Independent Alliance
Regeneration and Inclusive Growth Aslam Khan Conservative
Sustainable Development and Highways Adrees Latif Liberal Democrat
Waste, Climate Change and Neighbourhood Services Steve Stephens Liberal Democrat
Women, Equalities and Community Safety Rumi Chowdhury Independent Alliance
Finance, Revenues and Benefits Matt Fry Liberal Democrat
Children’s Services Lee Bridgen Liberal Democrat
Public Health and Integration Khtija Malik Independent Alliance
Adult Social Care Richard Underwood Liberal Democrat

Cllr Gillian Fry (Liberal Democrat) supports Cllr Bridgen on skills and education but does not hold an Executive seat. Who now answers for the airport, roads and the Bury Park trial is set out in our Executive report.

Where the leadership challenge stands now

Checked against the council’s own pages on 9 October 2026:

  • No further challenge has been tabled. The council’s political leadership page now says the council “is controlled by a coalition made up of the Liberal Democrat, Independent Alliance, and Conservative groups”, with Cllr Amjid Ali as Leader and Labour, led by Cllr Saleem, as the official opposition. The seat count is unchanged at 48: Labour 21, Liberal Democrat 13, Independent Alliance 7 (two of them Green Party members), Conservative 3, non-aligned Independent 3 and Reform UK 1.
  • Committees were reshuffled on 22 September. Full Council received a report on the “changes consequent upon the decision of Full Council on 14th September”. The officers found no change to the allocation of seats on the politically balanced committees, because that is set by group size, not by who runs the Executive. Labour, as the largest group, keeps the most scrutiny seats: 7 of the 15 on the Overview and Scrutiny Board, against 4 Liberal Democrat, 2 Independent Alliance, 1 Conservative and 1 non-aligned Independent. The same report records that Cllr Saima Hussain told the council on 1 September, two days before the challenge began, that she would sit as a non-aligned Independent rather than a Labour member.
  • The first policy reversal came on 5 October. The new Executive’s first ordinary meeting took Bury Park traffic improvements, the trial the Saleem Executive approved on 7 September in the middle of the challenge. It agreed to go ahead with measures that need no red route (parking cleared from crossings, pavement parking restrictions, longer loading bay hours, a bus stop review, more enforcement) and commissioned an independent economic impact assessment of a red route on local businesses. The council says that will take about three months, with a report back to the Executive “early in the new year”. Cllr Adrees Latif, now the highways portfolio holder, said the council needed to “properly understand the potential impact of any changes before deciding whether a red route is the right approach”.
  • Next Full Council. The council’s meetings system lists the next meeting in the Full Council series for 6pm on Tuesday 10 November 2026, in the Council Chamber. No agenda had been published on 9 October.

Could it happen again?

Yes, in principle. Standing Order 15.1(5), the rule used on 3 September, lets any councillor move the removal of the Executive Leader without notice at a Full Council meeting, and it then runs the same two stages: a vote on whether to take it forward, then an extraordinary meeting. The new coalition holds 23 of 48 seats, two short of a majority, so like the Labour administration before it, it depends on votes from outside its own groups. Cllr Ali’s term as Leader runs to the annual meeting in May 2027, which follows the all-out borough elections that month.

How it got here

The challenge began at Full Council on Thursday 3 September. That meeting had been called for committee seats and the Bury Park red route. Partway through, a councillor moved without notice that the Executive Leader be removed from office.

The council’s rules allow that. Standing Order 15.1 lists the motions that may be moved without notice, and item (5) is the “appointment and removal of the Executive Leader”.

The motion was not debated that night. On the council’s webcast of the meeting, the officer advising the Mayor explained that it works as a trigger. The council must arrange an extraordinary meeting to debate it. First, though, councillors vote on whether the matter should go forward at all.

Councillors asked for a recorded vote, taken by roll call. The officer gave the result as 24 for, 21 against, with three absences. That accounts for all 48 seats.

One councillor then asked for the follow-up meeting to be held within seven days. The officer replied that the rule is five clear working days between the summons and the meeting. That made 14 September the earliest possible date.

Who holds the seats

No group has a majority on Luton Council. The council’s political leadership page gives its make-up as:

  • 21 Labour
  • 13 Liberal Democrat
  • 7 Independent Alliance
  • 3 Conservative
  • 3 non-aligned Independent
  • 1 Reform UK

Labour, the group that runs the council, holds 21 of the 48 seats. An outright majority would be 25. The same page names the other group leaders: Cllr Amjid Ali for the Liberal Democrats, Cllr Aslam Khan for the Conservatives and Cllr Rob Roche for the Independent Alliance.

The numbers moved over the summer. Two councillors changed groups in August, which we covered in our report on committee seats.

How Luton Council is made up, and how the 3 September vote went Seats by group: Labour 21, Liberal Democrat 13, Independent Alliance 7, Conservative 3, non-aligned Independent 3, Reform UK 1, a total of 48. On 3 September the recorded vote to take the motion to remove the Leader forward was 24 for, 21 against, with three absences. 48 seats, no majority, and a 24 to 21 vote Luton Council seats by group, and the recorded vote on 3 September to take the removal motion forward Seats by group Labour 21 Liberal Democrat 13 Independent Alliance 7 Conservative 3 Non-aligned Independent 3 Reform UK 1 majority: 25 Recorded vote, 3 September: take the motion to remove the Leader forward? 24 for 21 against 3 absent Sources: Luton Council political leadership page; Full Council webcast, 3 September 2026. Graphic by Luton Daily.

The dashed line on the chart marks 25 seats. It is drawn against Labour’s bar only to show how far any single group is from an outright majority.

Who the Leader is

Cllr Saleem became Leader after the council’s annual meeting on 19 May 2026, the council announced at the time. The Luton Labour Group elected her after Cllr Hazel Simmons MBE said in March that she would step down after nearly 20 years as Leader.

Cllr Saleem was first appointed a councillor in 2019 and has represented Round Green and Biscot wards. She was Mayor of Luton from 2024 to 2025. As Leader she chairs the Executive, the council’s cabinet.

So Monday’s vote comes less than four months into her time as Leader.

Bury Park went ahead in between

The 3 September meeting also took up the Bury Park red route. Full Council referred the scrutiny board’s recommendation, to postpone the trial until four pieces of work were done, to the Executive.

The Executive met on Monday 7 September and decided to go ahead anyway. On the webcast of that meeting, the chair went through the four recommendations one by one, said each had been answered, and asked members whether to proceed. She concluded that they were agreed and the trial would go ahead.

The council confirmed the decision on 8 September. It says the 18-month trial will start “later this autumn”, with reviews after three, six, nine and 12 months. No start date has been published. Update: after the change of Leader, the new Executive revisited it on 5 October and put the red route on hold pending an independent economic impact assessment, while going ahead with the measures that do not need one (see “Where the leadership challenge stands now” above). The background is in our Full Council preview.

What it means for you

  • You can go. The meeting starts at 6pm on Monday 14 September in the Council Chamber, Town Hall, Luton LU1 2BQ. The summons says it is open to the public, and that anyone may film, photograph or record it, as long as they do not disrupt it.
  • You can watch it. The council streams Full Council on its YouTube channel. The 3 September meeting is there in full.
  • You can tell your councillors what you think first. All 48 vote, and the council lists them by ward on its local councillors page.

We have reported the outcome.

Frequently asked questions

What was the Luton Borough Council leadership challenge?

A motion to remove the Leader, Labour’s Cllr Tahmina Saleem, moved without notice at Full Council on 3 September 2026 under Standing Order 15.1(5). Councillors voted 24 to 21 to send it to an extraordinary meeting, which removed her 26 to 21 on 14 September.

Who won the Luton council leadership vote?

Liberal Democrat Cllr Amjid Ali. He was elected Executive Leader the same evening and leads a coalition of the Liberal Democrat, Independent Alliance and Conservative groups.

Does the new coalition have a majority?

No. The three groups hold 23 of the 48 seats (13 Liberal Democrat, 7 Independent Alliance and 3 Conservative), two short of the 25 needed for a majority. Labour has 21.

Who leads Labour on Luton Council now?

Cllr Tahmina Saleem remains leader of the Labour Group, which the council now lists as the official opposition.

When are the next Luton Borough Council elections?

Luton elects all 48 councillors at once every four years. The council’s political leadership page says they were last elected on 4 May 2023, so the next scheduled borough elections are in May 2027.

What has the new Luton administration changed so far?

Its first reversal was Bury Park. On 5 October the Executive put the planned red route trial on hold, commissioned an independent economic impact assessment due early in 2027, and went ahead with smaller measures such as clearing parking from crossings and longer loading bay hours.

When is the next Luton Full Council meeting?

The council’s meetings system lists the next meeting in the Full Council series for 6pm on Tuesday 10 November 2026 in the Council Chamber at the Town Hall. Meetings are open to the public and streamed on the council’s YouTube channel.

Can the new Luton council leader be removed the same way?

Yes. Standing Order 15.1(5) lets any councillor move the removal of the Executive Leader without notice at Full Council, followed by an extraordinary meeting if councillors vote to take it forward. The coalition has 23 of 48 seats, two short of a majority.

Sources

Current closures, including the Stockwood Park concert weekend, are on our Luton roadworks and travel page.