A NEW Oxford City Council leader will be elected by Labour Party councillors tonight.

Insiders have tipped the current deputy leader, Susan Brown, as the favourite to take over Bob Price, who has served as council leader since 2008.

Ms Brown is also a senior communications manager and the head of stakeholder engagement at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Other favourites are understood to include, Alex Hollingsworth, who is a former council leader and is, like Ms Brown, a member of its executive board.

But it is understood Mr Hollingsworth, who runs his own publishing business in Jericho, is also completing a PhD at Oxford Brookes University and is wary of how taking up the new role could impact on his time.

Councillors will meet at Oxford Town Hall tonight for a private meeting to choose the Labour Party group's new leader.

Other contenders are thought include the council’s former deputy leader and current board member for finance, Ed Turner, and board member for leisure, parks and sport, Linda Smith.

The only councillor to have formally declared their candidacy to the Oxford Mail is David Henwood, a design and technology teacher and councillor for Cowley since winning a by-election in July 2014.

Last September Mr Price announced he would be standing down as a member for the Hinksey Park ward in May’s local elections, having been a city councillor since 1983.

The council, which is controlled by Labour, will formally elect the new leader at a meeting on Monday evening.

In an email sent to councillors on New Year’s Day and seen by the Oxford Mail, Mr Price he said he would be ‘happy to stay on’ as portfolio holder for corporate and civic matters and economic development for the next four months after he formally steps down as leader in February.

Mr Price, who is also the chairman of the Oxfordshire Growth Board, told councillors he would be willing to continue in that role, if the new leader is happy with that arrangement.

In recent months Mr Price played a leading role in Oxfordshire scooping £215m from the Government for a fund which will see 100,000 new homes across the county and the re-opening of the Westgate Centre.

When he announced he was standing down as a councillor, Mr Price said: “As I reach my three score years and 10 next May, I have decided not to seek re-election for a further term as a member of the City Council.

“After 35 years representing my local community in Grandpont, New Hinksey and St Ebbes, and 12 years as the leader of the Labour group, it feels like a good moment for a change of pace.

“If I am averagely lucky, I hope to be able to find more time over the next decade doing more of the many things that I enjoy, but which have had to be squeezed in between city council commitments in recent years.”

The Labour Party has 34 councillors – a clear majority of the council’s 48 seats.

The Liberal Democrats have eight seats, while the Green Party has four.

The council’s sole independent is Councillor Mike Haines, who represents Marston.

A seat, previously held by Labour, is vacant after Jennifer Pegg, who represented Northfield Brook, died in November, aged 65.

An election to select Ms Pegg’s successor will be held on May 3, the same date that local elections take place in councils around the country.

In Oxford, voters will also elect a representative for one of the two seats in each of Oxford’s 24 wards.