THE city’s Greens have rejected an offer from Labour to form an alliance on the city council.

Worcester City Council’s new Labour leader Cllr Lynn Denham and deputy leader Cllr Jabba Riaz held crunch talks with the council’s Greens following last week’s election to discuss joining forces but the party said the offer was rejected.

Cllr Denham said she was “baffled” by the decision and did not understand why the Greens would continue to support the Tories remaining in power.

No party currently has a majority in the Guildhall following last Thursday’s election with the Conservatives losing three councillors, the Greens gaining two and Labour gaining one with the Tories left with 15 councillors, Labour on 12, the Greens on six and the Lib Dems on two.

The city’s Green councillors have instead called for all four parties to work together in a “collaborative council” jointly led by Labour and the Conservatives – the council’s current two biggest parties.

"Councillor Riaz and I have been talking to the Green Party leadership all weekend,” she said.

“Despite a common agenda on climate change and inequalities, the Greens declined our offer of any kind of progressive alliance.

“The Labour group made clear we don't support continuing the Tory leadership of Worcester City Council.

“It is baffling that the leader of Worcester Green Party continues to invite the Conservative Party to share power.

“Last week, the voters of Worcester gave a clear mandate to progressive parties, both in terms of votes and in terms of seats.

“Worcester Green Party's leadership should honour this mandate and move forward with resolving the city's many problems.

“The Labour Group of councillors remain focused on delivering on our promises to our voters."

The discussions came ahead of Cllr Denham using next week’s annual city council meeting to call for a change into how the leader and deputy leader are selected.

The motion will call for the whole council to vote on who will take on the council’s two top jobs instead of the positions being chosen from the council’s largest party.