Following the 2023 local elections, Labour has held majority control of the council, which meets at the Town Hall.

The new borough covered the wards from Teesside which generally corresponded to both the pre-1968 borough and the former parishes of Hemlington, Marton and Stainton (which had all been abolished and absorbed into Teesside in 1968), plus the parish of Nunthorpe from the Stokesley Rural District.

[28] The council vacated the Civic Centre in 2022 after purchasing nearby Fountain Court and relocating staff there.

[29] The motto Erimus ("We shall be" in Latin) was adopted, it reflects Fuimus ("We have been") of the Bruce clan which were Cleveland's mediaeval lords.

The original arms was granted to the Middlesbrough Rural District in 1911 by William Hylton Dyer Longstaffe.

The town's coat of arms were three ships representing shipbuilding and maritime trade and an azure (blue) lion, the latter also from the Bruce clan.

It was regranted in 1996 with slight modifications after the dissolution of Cleveland county: a star replaced the middle ship, this is from Captain James Cook's coat of arms.