Labour loses control of city council after 12 years

A Green Party candidate said they were "absolutely over the moon" after unseating the Labour leader of Cambridge City Council.

Kathryn Fisher was speaking after Green and Liberal Democrat gains left no party with overall control of the council, led by Labour since 2014.

The Liberal Democrats, meanwhile, strengthened their hold on South Cambridgeshire District Council taking 43 seats, with the Conservatives holding two.

All 52 seats at Huntingdonshire District Council were contested and it remained under no overall control, although Reform UK secured its first 10 seats.

Fisher, who took the seat for the Greens with 1,363 votes compared to Cameron Holloway's 1,208, said the party wanted to "really prioritise sorting out the housing crisis in Cambridge".

"The cost of living crisis is really hitting us in Cambridge," they said. "We are one of the most unequal cities in the UK."

The Greens claimed seven seats, six from Labour, to add to their existing five, while the Liberal Democrats secured four, bringing the party's seats to a total of 11.

Only 15 seats were up for re-election in Cambridge out of 42 and there was a 46% turnout.

Labour did win four wards, but they have gone from 23 seats to 17, with no party in overall control.

Holloway said he was "proud" of what Labour had achieved over the past 12 years.

"We've lost some excellent Labour councillors today and that is very sad," he said.

"I'm very proud of our record though, very proud that we've built 700 council homes, [and] we give over £1m in community grants every year to local charities."

Huntingdonshire had been run by a rainbow coalition of Liberal Democrats, Labour, Independents and Greens since 2022.

The Liberal Democrats increased their seats from 10 to 20, the Conservatives went from 22 seats to 15, while Reform UK secured its first 10 seats at the authority.

Karan Maheshwari, Ryan Coogan and Howard Tobias are all now Reform UK councillors for Ramsey.

"People have absolutely had enough of rising taxes, crime on their streets, lack of infrastructure, services always feeling like they are failing and deteriorating," Coogan said when asked about why people voted for his party.

Labour went from four seats to one, while the Greens doubled their seats from one to two.

There are now four Independent councillors compared to 15 in 2022, and the overall turnout for the election was 41%.

Among the Liberal Democrat winners were three members of the Hunt family - Nathan, Alan and Jacqueline - although the fourth member, Georgie, lost her battle for a Green Party seat.

"I think fundamentally I may wear a different rosette to my family, [but] we all stand for doing what is best for St Neots and Huntingdon," she said.

The last time seats in South Cambridgeshire were contested was also 2022 and the Liberal Democrats secured 37 seats to the Conservatives' eight.

This time they did even better, winning 43 seats on a 47% turnout.

Heather Williams, Conservative leader, said: "I have no intentions of sitting there quietly and licking my wounds; I am raring to go.

"I will hit that ground running and I will be scrutinising everything they put in front of me and I'm definitely not shy of being vocal."

Emma Howgego, one of BBC Cambridgeshire's political reporters, said: "The scale of the Liberal Democrat victory in South Cambridgeshire has staggered everyone.

"There were some close results in individual wards; in Swavesey, long-serving Conservative Sue Ellington lost to the Liberal Democrats by 58 votes.

"The Conservatives have also lost other experienced councillors like Bunty Waters in Bar Hill.

"The Greens will be disappointed not to have taken a seat in Histon and Impington and Shelford, where they have been campaigning hard.

"The council has made national headlines in recent years when it became the first local authority to introduce a four-day working week: it appears any opposition to that hasn't translated to dissatisfaction at the polls."

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