It’s a bluewash as Tories sweep aside Labour in county council polls
FRIDAY was a day to forget for Labour supporters, as the Tories tightened their grip on their control of Derbyshire County Council, increasing their majority from 36 seats to 45.
Labour saw its share of seats on the authority, which it has held for 36 years out of the past 48, reduce from 24 to 14.
The defeat that followed Thursday’s
election day, which unfolded at counts around the county, sees Labour fall into the significant opposition the Conservatives had been sat in eight years ago.
Friday’s results also make it the first time the Conservatives have had back-to-back administrations at the authority, extending into a second term for the first time.
The Conservatives were successful in reclaiming Wirksworth from Labour in the Derbyshire Dales, through Ashbourne-based councillor Dermot Murphy, with the party having come within 28 votes of victory four years ago.
Ashbourne’s key seats were comfortably retained by Conservative councillors, with Steve Bull settling back into the Ashbourne division with 3,013 votes and Simon Spencer remaining in Dovedale with 2,261.
For Councillor Bull, competition from Labour’s Nick Whitehead was of little concern. Mr Whitehead gained just 470 votes, while The Green Party’s John Hill gained 474 and Peter Dobbs, of the Liberal Democrats gained 541.
And for the county council’s deputy leader Simon Spencer, who was vying for his Dovedale seat with The Green Party’s Neil Buttle, his 2,621 votes comfortably saw off Mr Buttle’s 1,910.
The overall result suggests a further march of Derbyshire away from its historic voting patterns, becoming less a part of the “Red Wall” and now turning a vibrant blue.
This had been foreshadowed in the 2019 General Election, in which Labour lost the Bolsover constituency to the Tories for the first time in decades, along with the district council.
Results from yesterday now show Labour lost three of the six Bolsover district seats on the county council - all of which it had held matching the move in the area away from its traditional political roots.
It also lost four of its North East Derbyshire county council seats, where the district council had also moved away from Labour in 2019.
Out of the 12 county council seats across Bolsover and North East Derbyshire, Labour had held 11, but now holds four.
This came through Tory victories in Clay Cross North, South Normanton & Pinxton, Tibshelf, Eckington & Killamarsh, and Sutton.
But it is the victory in the seats of Alfreton and Somercotes in Amber Valley that will bring the Conservatives extra joy.
The two Alfreton and Somercotes seats comprised Labour’s only showing on the county council in Amber Valley, but with the defeat of Labour leader Paul Smith and fellow party runner Steve Marshall-clarke, the whole of the map is now blue.
This has been compounded by the further blow of losing Labour’s deputy leader on the council - election campaign coordinator Mick Wall lost his seat of Loundsley Green and Newbold in a shock defeat to the Liberal Democrats’ Ed Fordham, by just 74 votes.
Labour also lost prominent councillor Jim Coyle in the South Normanton & Pinxton seat, losing out to the Conservatives.
The map is also entirely blue in South
Derbyshire, with the Tories completing a “clean sweep” of all eight divisions, completing the set with a victory in Swadlincote North - Labour’s Sean Bambrick losing out by 84 votes to Conservative Peter Smith.
The Green Party gained its first ever county councillor, with Gez Kinsella claiming victory in the Duffield & Belper South division - overturning a huge loss in the seat in 2017 to win this year by more than 700 votes over Tory Chris Short.
This builds on the party’s success in the borough council elections in 2019, when Duffield Green Party councillor Dave Wells was elected. Mr Kinsella says this proves the party’s previous success was not a “flash in the pan”. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats increased their numbers on the authority from three to four, with two new councillors in Chesterfield district, where the party has performed well at a borough level. However, their group leader Beth Atkins lost her seat in New Mills to Labour’s Anne Clarke.
Conservative Edwina Currie, a former Derbyshire MP and junior health minister, was unsuccessful in her attempt to rejoin the political world, losing out to fellow former Derbyshire MP, Labour’s Ruth George, who retained the Whaley Bridge division with a 700vote margin.
It was a “bittersweet” victory for Conservative Julie Patten in Hilton, South Derbyshire, in a year in which her husband died, saying “My biggest supporter is not with me but I am delighted after what has been a very difficult time”. Reflecting on his party’s monumental victory, Cllr Barry Lewis, Conservative leader, said: “We have seen history being made again here in Derbyshire. “Cracks and crumblings had been forming in the red wall and I think those have now become a complete collapse.
“We have had amazing results for the Conservatives in Derbyshire, there is no safe Labour seat anymore, as far as
Cracks had been forming in the red wall and led to a complete collapse..
Cllr Barry Lewis
we are concerned. The public have now spoken.
“There are parts of Derbyshire which have been long-forgotten and with Conservative councillors in place we can help those areas move on.”
He said the victory in Clay Cross North for the Tories was a standout, alongside those in Bolsover and North East Derbyshire.
Cllr Lewis said: “This is the turning of the tide and that switch has been flicked.”
Outgoing Labour leader, Paul Smith, who lost his seat by more than 400 votes, said: “It was a really bad night for us. It is a shocking set of results for us.
“I have been doing this for 25 years and I thought I understood what people want and we put together a good set of pledges which I feel deal with the issues of concern, but the electorate have not agreed.
“The Conservatives have got a massive majority now and I am fearful that some of those communities may get left behind and I don’t want to see that.
“Boris Johnson seems to be getting across the message that people want to hear and the NHS has been rolling out the vaccination.
“I haven’t got any real clue about where we need to be. I think Keir Starmer needs more time to establish himself.”
All in all, 17 seats out of the 64 changed hands, with the Conservatives gaining 12, Labour gained two seats (Glossop & Charlesworth and New Mills in the High Peak), the Lib Dems gaining two (Walton & West and Loundsley Green and Newbold, both in Chesterfield district) and the Green Party gained Duffield and Belper South.
The overall makeup of the council before the election was:
Conservatives, 36 seats; Labour, 24; Lib Dems, seats; and one vacancy (Staveley).
The new authority is:
Conservatives, 45; Labour, 14 seats; Lib Dems, four; Green Party, seat.
LABOUR’S woes have been compounded with the loss of Amber Valley Borough Council. The Tories took nine seats from Labour out of 15, including that of Amber Valley council leader Chris Emmas-williams, who said it had been a “disastrous” day for his party. Emmaswilliams has been a councillor in Amber Valley for 35 years.
The gains were in Belper Central, Alfreton, Heanor East, Heanor West, Heanor & Loscoe, Codnor & Waingroves, Ripley, Ripley & Marehay, and Shipley Park, Horsley and Horsley Woodhouse.
The Conservatives held on to Ironville & Riddings, Shipley Park, Horsley & Horsley Woodhouse, and Kilburn, Denby & Holbrook. They also gained a vacant seat in Heage and Ambergate, which had been Conservative-held.
Labour held on to only two of the 11 seats it was defending
THE turnouts in Ashbourne’s two divisions were among the lowest in the Derbyshire Dales.
Just 43% of voters in the Ashbourne division headed to their polling station to choose between four candidates, including successful Conservative councillor Steve Bull.