Ricky Bell has taken over as leader of Glasgow City Council after Susan Aitken stepped down following nine years in charge.
The SNP councillor for Govan was elected by councillors at a meeting of the full council on Thursday, becoming only the second SNP politician to lead Scotland’s largest local authority.
Bell defeated Glasgow Labour leader Rashid Hussain in the final vote after the SNP, Labour, Greens and Your Party all nominated candidates.
He had been widely expected to succeed Aitken after taking over as leader of the council’s SNP group earlier this year.
Bell has served as deputy leader of the council since 2022 and became Glasgow’s city treasurer in 2020. He now takes charge with less than a year until the next Glasgow City Council election in May 2027.
One of his biggest immediate challenges will be the city’s finances, with the council facing significant pressure on services and warnings over a substantial budget shortfall.
Bell has also already signalled that he intends to push for changes in the relationship between Glasgow and surrounding local authorities.
He recently argued that Glasgow taxpayers are carrying costs created by people who live outside the council boundary but regularly use services and infrastructure in the city.
The new council leader has raised the prospect of a wider Greater Glasgow authority incorporating some surrounding communities – an idea which has already attracted opposition from politicians in neighbouring council areas.
He has also called for more support from the Scottish Government over the cost of accommodating refugees and asylum seekers in Glasgow, arguing that the burden should not fall disproportionately on the city.
He was first elected to local government in 1992 before leaving politics and returning as an SNP councillor for Govan in 2017.
Before returning to politics, Bell spent more than two decades working in finance and commercial roles in the newspaper industry and ran Bell & Felix, an independent cafe in Shawlands.
Bell said ahead of the leadership vote that he would be prepared to stand up to both the Scottish and UK governments when he believed Glasgow was not receiving a fair deal.
Aitken became the first SNP leader of Glasgow City Council following the 2017 local elections, when the party ended decades of Labour control at the City Chambers.
She will remain a councillor until the local elections next year.