Local elections: ‘Seismic’ Labour win in bellwether Plymouth council

Labour has gained overall control of Plymouth in the local elections, marking the first council of the night it has won.

The party made seven gains, five from the Conservatives, taking it to 31 seats and giving it overall control of the bellwether seat which has traditionally flipped between the two main parties.

It also notched up 44 per cent of the vote, according to BBC analysis, with the Conservatives significantly behind on 25%. Labour’s vote share is up 7% on 2019.

Labour leader Tudor Evans said broadcasters were not “reflecting just how seismic the result in Plymouth was”.

He tweeted: “Tories just one seat of 19. Labour had 15 wins, best result since 1995, before Tony Blair became PM!”

Plymouth had been a key target seat for Labour, looking to capitalise on the local Conservative council’s hugely controversial decision to remove a swathe of trees from its city council.

The Conservative minority administration had recently elected a new leader, with the tree felling row leading to the departure of its former leader.

But local party figures have said wider issues have affected the vote too, including the cost-of-living crisis and NHS pressures.

Labour was the largest party in the 2019 local elections in Plymouth, but the 2022 contest had left Labour and the Conservatives neck and neck on 24 seats.

Labour’s Luke Pollard, one of the city’s MPs, said Labour had “won every ward” in local Conservative MP’s constituency.

“We got more votes than the Tories in every ward in my patch too. Based on these results Plymouth will have two Labour MPs, a Labour Council and do our bit to put Keir Starmer into Number 10 at the General Election,” he tweeted.

Read more on the local elections:

• Latest updates: Labour councils won, held and lost
• Labour win overall control in key target council Stoke
• Labour wins majority control of Medway for first time
• Labour becomes largest party in Bolton but not in overall control
• Labour’s Chris Cooke takes Middlesbrough mayor post from independent
• Labour bruises the Tories in North West Leicestershire, Hartlepool, Tamworth
• What would good local election results look like for Labour?