Labour romped to victory in Sefton local elections, gaining five more seats - including the party's first ever in Ainsdale - to increase the group's strong grip on the council.
The ruling party went into tonight's results in a comfortable position, holding 46 of the council's 66 seats, but they will be delighted to increase that number to 51 after a bad night for sitting independent councillors.
Sefton's vote counts were split between Aintree Racecourse, where the south and central declarations were made and The Dunes Leisure Centre, which heard the results from the Southport wards.
READ MORE: Local Elections 2023 results Live from Liverpool, Sefton, Wirral, Knowsley and across the country
And it was at the latter where the first big result of the night came as Labour gained the hotly contested Ainsdale seat. The seat had previously been held by Cllr Terry Jones, a former Conservative councillor who broke away to join the Southport independents before electing not to stand this time around.
With just 16 votes in it a recount was ordered and there were big celebrations as Janet Harrison took the seat for Labour by just 16 votes - the first time the party has won a seat in the ward.
This gained seat in the Southport area will be particularly warmly welcomed by the wider party, who will be heavily targeting the Conservative Parliamentary seat of Southport at the next General Election.
Southport is currently held by Conservative MP Damien Moore and will be a big Labour ambition at the next General Election. However it is a traditional Lib Dem heartland and Councillor Iain Brodie-Browne was bullish as he pointed out that his party topped the popular vote in the constituency in these local votes.
He said: “It’s been a great night for the Lib Dems. We’ve topped the popular vote in Southport. If a general election was held today on these votes, we would have won It. Labour have been strutting around boasting that they were going to win Southport and we defeated them."
Further gains for Labour came at the Aintree count - in the wards of Harington, Sudell, Ravenmeols and Park wards. Each of these gains came at the expense of sitting independent councillors.
Sitting Labour councillor James Hansen said: "The results are clear tonight. We've got the best result we've ever got in Sefton with 51 out of 66 councillors. Considering we only took control in 2012, it's clear that Labour are on the up here. People are responding to the work we're doing. They want decent councillors who represent them, but the graft in, are hard-working and it shows tonight."
Labour were never realistically going to lose control of Sefton Council but adding five to their numbers will be seen as a major result for the Red Rose party.
The results leave Labour on 51 seats, with the Liberal Democrats in second place on eight seats. The Conservatives have five seats and only two independents remain.
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