Lancashire election: Labour sheds two dozen seats as Reform and Gaza bite

Labour has lost more than two dozen seats on Lancashire county council, with 50 Reform councillors set to take control and the Labour group leader hitting out at the party as he lost his seat.

The BBC reports Labour’s vote share was down 23% on seats declared as of around 2pm Friday, in an area that was red for almost all of the New Labour era.

Matthew Tomlinson, outgoing leader of the opposition Labour group who was defeated after more than two decades on the north-west local authority,  said the change voters wanted was “not happening yet”. He told the BBC he understood the party’s tough inheritance, but Labour looked like it was attacking the vulnerable with its spending cuts.

84 seats on Lancashire county council were up for grabs at these elections. The Conservatives have been in the majority since 2017, but Labour previously ran the council.

READ MORE: Lancashire: Long shadow of Gaza looms over campaign trail in key battleground

With 78 seats declared, Labour had only five seats, 27 down on last time round, with the Tories on eight (down 35), independents on eight and Reform on 65 (both up from zero last time round).

Reform leader Nigel Farage visited to highlight the party’s success, claiming voters knew they “weren’t going to get change” from Labour or the Tories and “enraged…[by] young men crossing the English Channel, being dumped into the north of England, getting everything for free…put to the top of the social housing list”. He claimed Reform councils would resist government “plonking” asylum seekers in its areas.

LabourList’s Luke O’Reilly visited Preston in the run-up to the contest., where the country council is headquartered, speaking to Labour supporters hoping to make gains. He found that many local Labour figures were concerned that the party’s stance on Gaza would cost Labour votes.

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Lancashire is an unusually fierce battleground for a county council, with Labour and the Conservatives each having won three of the past six elections since 2001

The Tories have held it since 2017, but with it is the kind of area where some would argue Keir Starmer’s Labour should at the very least be making gains after 14 years of Conservative rule nationally. Labour won back the Hyndburn constituency at the general election. The Tories have also lost control of two councils in the region, Ribble Valley and Pendle, in recent years.

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Read more on the 2025 local elections:

Results on the day

Analysis and what to expect

• Runcorn blame game begins – why did Labour lose?
• ‘Labour has lost in Runcorn – here are the eight things the party should do now‘
• MPs who could lose their seat on Runcorn by-election swing to Reform
• ‘Results so far say one thing: voters think change isn’t coming fast enough’
• Three ways to measure Labour’s success tonight
• Expert predicts ‘bad night’ with no net Labour gains
• ‘Uxbridgitis: If election results are grim, let’s not learn the wrong lessons again’
• Where’s Keir? PM barely features in Labour party election broadcasts for the locals
• The meme elections: Labour’s social media pivot to take fight to Farage

LabourList’s on-the-ground reports from the campaign

• Hull and East Yorkshire: Labour candidate spars with Reform’s boxing star in UK’s most disillusioned city
• Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Nik Johnson on why he’s standing down and Anna Smith on knife-edge Labour-Tory fight to replace him
• West of England: Tory and Green threats, Dan Norris and low voter awareness

Inside the Runcorn campaign

• Mood on the doorstep: Labour’s last push for Tory voters to keep out Reform
• At least 150 Labour MPs visit – but Keir Starmer ain’t one
• Karen Shore interview: Labour candidate on Reform, the NHS and closing asylum hotels
• Runcorn poll: One in ten Labour voters expected to back Reform

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