It has been a bad night and Friday for Labour across Greater Manchester
The party has lost Tameside council in Angela Rayner’s constituency to no overall control
The council had been under Labour control since 1979 but lost sixteen seats to Reform U.K. overnight
The new makeup of the council sees Labour with twenty five councillors, Reform U.K. with nineteen,Independents with eight and the Tories who also lost two councillors to Reform U.K. with five
Labour leader on Tameside Council Eleanor Wills accepted “collective responsibility”
Speaking to Sky News, she said the party as a whole “needs to get better at communicating what we actually do.”
Labour has also lost control of Oldham Council to no overall control-The new makeup up of the council sees Labour witj 17 councillors Reform UK with 16, the Oldham Group with 10, Liberal Democrats with 6 Tories with 4, six Independents and Failsworth Independent Party with 1
In Manchester the Greens took eighteen wards with Reform UK taking seven with Labour losing twenty four councillors
Labour has held onto Salford but lost 14 wards with thirteen going to Reform UK
It was the same story in Rochdale with Labour holding onto control of the council despite losing wards to Reform
Reform have gained 11, while the Conservatives and Independents have both lost 1 seat respectively.
Labour has held Wigan council but lost all 22 seats it was defending to Reform UK
In Bolton, Labour remains the largest party despite the Leader of the Council Nick Peel losing his seat to Reform.Nigel Farage’s Party won only nine of the 20 seats up for grabs.
The Labour vote held up in Bury where the party has held the same number of seats on Bury council better than elsewhere in Greater Manchester.
Trafford’s Labour held onto its majority but lost some big names from the council chamber
The Lib Dems have gained Stockport council from no overall control. They now have 32 councillors gaining two seats while Labour lost five seats with Reform gaining two seats and the Greens one
Nationally Sir Keir Starmer’s party no longer has a majority on Exeter, Redditch, Hartlepool or Tamworth councils after the overnight counts
The party has also lost control of Hyndburn, and Blackburn and Darwen in Lancashire Cannock Chase in Staffordshire
Reform UK has gained its first council of the 2026 local elections in England, taking Newcastle-under-Lyme from the Conservatives – winning 27 of the 44 seats available
Reform UK also won control of Suffolk council in a major blow to the Tories and has control of Essex
The Tories have won control of Westminster council from Labour
Andy Burnham has pulled out of keynote speech this morning.The Greater Manchester Mayor was due to speak at the Festival of Children Event
Sir Keir Starmer would be “gone by now” if Andy Burnham was in parliament, says Labour MP John McDonnell.
Nigel Farage says Reform UK is so far “exceeding” his election results prediction
“I think what you’re witnessing is an historic change in British politics. Forget left-right, there is no more left-right. It is gone, it is out of the window, it’s finished”
Salford MP Rebecca Long-Bailey told the BBC’s Radio Election 26: “It’s a really soul-destroying night.
We’ve lost a large number of really good Labour councillors and candidates and it’s quite clear that we’ve been squeezed both from Reform and the Greens.
“We were feeling that on the doorstep in Salford. Despite them loving our local councillor and thinking they were doing a fantastic job, a lot of residents just felt that they just couldn’t vote for the Labour Party this time because of what we’ve been doing nationally on a whole range of things.”
