Blimey, Reform have gained St Helens
I’m still trying to get to grips with how local elections are structured but it would seem that St Helens with all seats up for election is a lone outlier in Merseyside, Lanacashire and Greater Manchester with all the others being one-third, all of which will be voting again for another third in 2027 and the remaining third in 2028.
Which explains why St Helens went Reform while the others remained more or less the same, despite a rise in Reform voting and drop in Labour. So, unless Labour get their act together over the coming two years it’s quite probable Reform will continue to gather councillors in 2027 and 2028, possibly resulting in eventual council control like St Helens.
In the Yorkshire constituencies mentioned above all seats were contested; hence the large swings to Reform.
A similar tale in other all-seat contests around the country where Reform gained control such as Newcastle-under-Lyme, Sunderland and Thurrock.
As far as I can gather 27 ‘Metropolitan Districts’ who had one-third votes on Thursday will be voting again in 2027 and 2028.
Labour: be warned