Labour suffer humiliating losses in English council elections

Published on Friday 5 June 2009 17:13

THE Labour Party has endured a disasterous series of results in the English local elections today - losing three of its four county councils to the Tories.

The party lost Derbyshire County Council following 28 years of rule, while they were also beaten by the Conservatives in Lancashire and Staffordshire.

Labour began the day defending Derbyshire, Lancashire, Staffordshire and Nottinghamshire, but now face the prospect of being left without any English county councils once all the results are in.

And with Prime Minister Gordon Brown carrying out a Cabinet reshuffle in Westminster, early results from elsewhere in the country also made grim reading.

Labour lost 16 seats in Derbyshire as the Conservatives gained 19 to take an eye-catching victory with one ward result still to come in.

In Lancashire, Labour lost 25 seats as the Tories picked up 18 to turn the red-rose county blue. It is the first time since 1981 that Labour has lost control of the council.

The British National Party picked up its first English county council seat in Lancashire, with Sharon Wilkinson defeating Labour's Marcus Johnstone in the Padiham and Burnley West ward.

Ms Wilkinson said: "It is absolutely wonderful for the party and gives me the opportunity to represent more people."

Staffordshire also fell to the Tories as they soared past the 32 seats needed to claim a majority, and were predicting a landslide victory there as Labour and the Liberal Democrats failed to make inroads.

Elsewhere in the country Labour were trounced in the battle for Lincolnshire County Council, losing 17 seats as the Tories gained 15 and increased their hold on the authority.

They also failed to gain a single councillor in newly-formed Central Bedfordshire, where the Tories took 54 of the 66 seats up for grabs.

And the party lost eight seats in Bristol as the Liberal Democrats took overall control of the city.

Elections for 34 English councils comprising 2,318 council seats took place yesterday with results slowly coming through today.

There were also three mayoral contests in Doncaster, North Tyneside and Hartlepool.

Tory leader David Cameron told activists in Devon his party were winning seats all over the country as early counting took place.

The Tories picked up Somerset County Council from the Liberal Democrats, gaining 11 seats as the Liberal Democrats lost nine and Labour's representation was halved from four to two.

They also gained control of Devon from the Lib Dems, winning enough seats to claim victory on the county council before all results were declared.

"You can see the Conservative Party strong, united and positive, winning in every part of our country," Mr Cameron said.