Labour become the biggest party on Peterborough City Council for first time in over 20 years as Conservatives suffer significant losses

The Labour/Labour and Cooperative Party have become the largest group on Peterborough City Council for the first time since 1999.

The groups ranks swelled to 19 on a night when the Conservatives ended up 11 councillors worse off than when they started; leaving them with just 11 councillors.

They are now the third largest party after Peterborough First grew their numbers to 14 councillors.

The council remains in no overall control and it remains to be seen whether Labour leader Dennis Jones will assume the Council Leader role or whether it will remain with Peterborough First’s Mohammed Farooq.

The overall turnout for the election was 30.32%, roughly similar to 30.46% last year.

The Conservatives came into the night defending 14 seats but only managed to retain two. Lynne Ayres retained her seat in West, Irene Walsh took over from previous Conservative incumbent David Over in Barnack and there was a shock victory for Alex Rafiq in Paston and Walton.

The Conservative candidate beat Liberal Democrat councillor and current mayor Nick Sandford by just five votes.

Amjad Iqbal retained his seat in Central for Labour while Zameer Ali filled the seat in North ward vacated by Mohammed Haseeb.

Nicola Jenkins (Bretton), Numan Iqbal (East), Jason McNally (Dogsthorpe), Daisy Blackmore-Creedon (Fletton and Woodston) and Angus Ellis (Park) all gained seats for the party from the Conservatives.

Ellis beat Conservative candidate Murtaza Munir by just two votes in the closest result of the night.

Peterborough First were also big victors on the night and became the second largest group; retaining seats through Gavin Elsey (Wittering), John Fox (Werrington), Chris Harper (Stanground South) and Neil Boyce (Glinton and Castor), although he took over the seat held by previous Peterborough First candidate Saqib Farooq.

The son of the council leader deposed Conservative Nicolle Moyo in Hargate and Hempsted.

Rodrigo Antunes (Hampton Vale) and Sarah Hillier (Werrington) also made gains the for party. Every candidate the group stood was victorious.

Despite the shock loss of Nick Sandford, the Liberal Democrats still grew to nine councillors thanks to gains from the Conservatives in Fletton and Stanground thanks to Polly Geraghty and Gunthorpe with Ann Shaheed.

The Greens continued the successful night for all parties on the council other than the Conservatives, growing from two councillors to four.

Imtiaz Ali returned to the council- after previously being a Labour councillor in Fletton and Woodston- with victory in Orton Longueville and Gul Nawaz was beaten by Qaiser Farid in Ravensthorpe.

The only independent going into the night Kirsty Knight held her seat in Orton Waterville comfortably by a margin of 556.

It was also a night of notable for success for women, with eight being elected onto the council- six for the first time.

Nicola Jenkins (Labour, Bretton), Olivia Geraghty (Lib Dem, Fletton and Stanground), Daisy Blakemore-Creedon (Labour, Fletton and Woodston), Ann Shaheed (Lib Dem, Gunthorpe), Irene Walsh (Conservative, Barnack) and Sarah Hillier (Peterborough First, Werrington) were the women newly- voted onto the council.

The make-up of the council is now: Labour/Labour and Co-operative 19, Peterborough First 14, Conservatives 11, Liberal Democrats 9, Green 4, Independents 3.