Siobhan Harper-Nunes

Introduction

Siobhan Harper-Nunes, 66, a Birmingham city councillor elected for the Green Party in May 2026, was suspended by the party and now sits as an independent after being charged with five assaults — on a member of the public, three police officers and a member of police staff — following an incident in Edgbaston on 6 August 2026. She denied all five charges at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court on 17 September 2026 and will stand trial on 19 and 20 July 2027. The case cost her the party whip within weeks of her election and removed her from the Green Party group on the council pending the outcome.

Background Information

Harper-Nunes was elected to Birmingham City Council for the Ladywood ward in the May 2026 local elections, and had previously stood as the Green Party’s candidate for West Midlands mayor in the 2024 election — a profile that made her one of the party’s recognizable figures in the region. On 6 August 2026, at about 17:00 BST, police were called to the junction of Monument Road and Hagley Road in Edgbaston. Harper-Nunes was arrested on suspicion of assault. She was subsequently charged with five offences: three counts of assaulting a police officer, and two counts of assault by beating, covering a member of the public and a member of police staff among the complainants.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Charged, not convicted. Harper-Nunes denies all five charges and has entered not guilty pleas. She is presumed innocent and will stand trial in July 2027. The consequences recorded here — suspension and the loss of the whip — are her party’s response to the charges, not findings of guilt.

Following the charges, the Green Party suspended Harper-Nunes, and Birmingham City Council’s website now lists her as an independent councillor — the formal record of a newly elected councillor stripped of her party within months of taking office. She appeared in front of magistrates in Birmingham, was released on unconditional bail, and at the hearing on Thursday 17 September 2026 pleaded not guilty to all five counts.

District Judge Michelle Smith told the defendant she would face a trial lasting a day and a half on 19 and 20 July 2027, the date fixed after Harper-Nunes’ solicitor, Georgina Ellis, asked for CCTV relating to the case to be reviewed. The first hearing, on 10 September 2026, had been adjourned for that purpose. Harper-Nunes spoke only to confirm her name and her address — of Monument Road, Birmingham, the street that gives its name to the junction where the incident began.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The case was covered by the BBC twice in a week — the charges on 10 September, the not guilty pleas and trial date on 17 September — plus regional outlets including the Express & Star and Birmingham Mail. The concrete political consequence came immediately: Green Party suspension and reclassification as an independent councillor. For a party that had promoted her as its West Midlands mayoral candidate two years earlier, the suspension removed its association with the pending charges while the criminal process runs; for Harper-Nunes, it means serving her term without the party group’s support, committee positions, or whip.

No outcome has been reached: the charges are unadjudicated, the complainants’ accounts and the CCTV have yet to be tested at trial, and both the assaults alleged and her denials remain live issues for July 2027. The Express & Star’s report of the hearing added regional coverage of the trial date.

Current Status

Harper-Nunes remains a councillor — as an independent — on unconditional bail, awaiting trial on 19 and 20 July 2027 at which she will answer three counts of assaulting a police officer and two of assault by beating. Her Green Party suspension stands pending the criminal proceedings’ outcome. No additional charges or civil actions are recorded.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The charges transformed Harper-Nunes’ political standing twice in six weeks: from a newly elected Green councillor and former mayoral candidate to an independent fighting five assault allegations. A conviction at trial would carry consequences beyond the sentence — councillors convicted of imprisonable offences can be disqualified from office — while an acquittal would restore her legal position but not automatically her party membership, which the suspension severed. Until then, her term in office proceeds under the shadow of the pending trial, and the public record carries both the charges and her formal denial of them.

Sources

• *BBC News, “Birmingham councillor appears in court accused of five assaults,” Sep 10, 2026 — source
• *BBC News, “Birmingham councillor in court denies five assault charges,” Sep 17, 2026 — source
• *Express & Star, “West Midlands councillor to face trial next year after denying assaults on five people,” Sep 17, 2026 — source