As the sun rises on a new day in Greater Manchester, a new political era is waking up. Towns that were deep red for decades have served up a ‘kicking’ to Labour.
Voters shunned Sir Keir Starmer’s party in their droves yesterday (May 7), serving up defeat after defeat for the red rose party – with Bolton’s council leader and Salford’s scandal-mired deputy among the most bruising scalps. The region’s political landscape has been pulled in an entirely new direction.
Despite only one-third of council seats being up for grabs in Greater Manchester, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK was the main beneficiary of a woeful night for Labour, sweeping to victory in 79 wards across the region by 7.15am. The upstarts in pale blue stormed to success in 24 out of 25 available seats on Wigan council, 18 out of 19 seats in Tameside and 13 of 21 seats in Salford, a city which has been synonymous with the working class movement for centuries.
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Labour has lost overall control of Tameside, for the first time in a staggering 47 years, and the bellwether borough of Bolton. In Stockport, it was the Liberal Democrats who benefitted from voters’ dismay towards Labour, adding three wards to take overall control of the council.
Jo Platt, Labour MP for Leigh and Atherton, put it bluntly when she discussed her party’s night. She told the Manchester Evening News: “It is about the voters. They wanted to give us a kicking and they have.
Reform UK won 24 of 25 seats in Wigan(Image: Jason Roberts /Manchester Evening News)
“This is about the voters. This is about listening and that’s what we’ve got to take stock of locally and nationally. We have got to listen to what they said and it starts tomorrow.”
And Rebecca Long-Bailey, Labour MP for Salford, couldn’t hide her devastation after the party lost 11 seats on the night.
She told the M.E.N.: “It’s just soul destroying. I think we’ve lost so many good councillors tonight who didn’t deserve to lose their seats. Good candidates standing for the first or second time that should have won. It’s not on them this terrible defeat in Salford tonight. They’ve been working hard for the city and the national party needs to understand the scale of the defeat.
“It isn’t just about a few things here and there, it’s about fundamental trust in the party and the fact that over the last 12 months we’ve done things that were silly.”
As results started rolling in shortly before 2am, it quickly became apparent Reform were the big winners on the night.
Despite Reform UK’s success in many corners of the region, they are yet to take control of any Greater Manchester council. While some English councils held ‘all-out’ elections, with every seat up for grabs, only one-third of council seats were available in Greater Manchester.
That may provide a crumb of comfort for some Labour figures in the region – but the scale of Reform’s surge overnight may point to further dramatic shifts in Greater Manchester’s political landscape when voters next take to the polls.
Wigan
In Wigan, Reform leader Coun Paul Watson described his party’s 24 gains as ‘unprecedented’ on what would become a sobering night for Labour, which lost 21 seats.
“For Labour, it all comes down to their leadership,” he said. “Keir Starmer, he has to go. He has to fall on his sword because when the people speak, the government has to listen and the people have spoken. They no longer want a Labour government.”
Jenna Painter, Reform’s new Ince councillor(Image: Jason Roberts /Manchester Evening News)
Despite Reform winning nearly all the seats on May 7, Labour will still be in charge of Wigan Council as it was mathematically impossible for the party to be ousted. It now has 41 seats, with Reform holding 25.
Bolton
In Bolton, Labour council leader Nick Peel lost his seat to Reform – one of nine seats the party won in the borough – while the Green Party won three wards. Labour held just two seats.
The ousted council leader was quick to point the finger at perceptions of the national government. “The last Conservative government was kicked out less than two years ago in a landslide but there’s public impatience for change,” he said.
“Impatience for things to happen quickly makes it very volatile. The new Labour government is being harshly judged, I think in many ways unfairly. But the public is making its views known.”
There are now 20 Labour councillors, 11 Conservatives, 10 Reform members, four Liberal Democrats, four Greens and 10 independents – including four Horwich and Blackrod first, and three Farnworth and Kearsley First.
Tameside
Labour has lost its majority on Tameside council after an uninterrupted run of 47 years. The party lost 14 of the 15 seats it was defending – enough to deprive it of a majority and leave the council with no group large enough to have overall control.
The scale of Reform’s success in Tameside was historic. Deputy council leader Andrew McLaren said it had been a ‘really tough night’ for his Labour party amid anger for the national government.
The new state of the parties is Labour 25 seats, Reform 19, independents eight and the Conservatives five.
Salford
Salford’s biggest headline was the defeat for deputy council leader Jack Youd in Walkden North. Once touted as a potential Salford mayor should Paul Dennett eventually run for the Greater Manchester role, Mr Youd was placed at the centre of a scandal involving an affair and deleted emails.
While Reform was the biggest winner in Salford, gaining 11 seats, the Green Party won three seats in Blackfriars and Trinity, Ordsall and Salford Quays – three wards neighbouring Manchester city centre, which have seen significant development in recent years. Just three seats were held by Labour in Eccles, Broughton, and Barton and Winton.
Labour have gone from a party that boasted 45 out of 60 seats in the council chamber to now just 34. Reform UK went from one seat in the council chamber to 14. A total of 21 out of 60 seats were contested by 109 candidates across 20 wards.
Stockport
In Stockport, the biggest smiles were reserved for the Lib Dems, which took overall control of the council for the first time since 2011. “We show time and time again that the Liberal Democrats are the way to beat Reform, and Liberal Democrat areas don’t vote Reform,” said Stockport council leader Mark Roberts.
“I’m really pleased with the result tonight, it’s 15 years in the making to get to this point, it’s built on years of hard work from my predecessor Councillor Mark Hunter and others, so really chuffed.”
Lib Dem celebrations in Stockport(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
The Green Party picked up one new seat in Reddish North, while Reform won two in Manor, and Brinnington and Stockport Central. It leaves Stockport council with 33 Lib Dems, 14 Labour councillors, nine independents, four for the Greens, two Reform and one Tory.
Oldham
In Oldham, declarations began far later in the night that the rest of the region. Always dramatic when it comes to local politics, Oldham saw its night begin in that exact fashion as a Ferrari belonging to Oldham Group leader Kamran Ghafoor had its windscreen smashed.
A number of residents in the Waterhead ward were also disenfranchised, after the names of candidates from Shaw were mistakenly written on their ballot papers.
Four still to come
Bury, Manchester, Rochdale and Trafford councils are expected to declare their results on Friday afternoon, with counts beginning later this morning.