Labour retain majority at Reading Borough Council

Reading Borough Council's Labour leader says she is "excited to get on with delivering what we promised" after the party comfortably retained their majority.

Labour lost four seats overall, with three going to the Greens and one to the Conservatives.

Liz Terry, leader of Labour at the authority, said she was "really disappointed to have lost some really hard-working colleagues".

Meanwhile, the former Conservative leader in Reading, Clarence Mitchell - who defected to Reform UK - lost his seat to the Conservatives, which he described as "very disappointing".

But Green leader Rob White said the results had been an "amazing success" for his party.

While Labour remain firmly in control of the council, Karen Rowland, the lead on the council for environmental services, lost her Abbey Ward seat to Jacqueline Dominguez for the Greens.

The Labour lead councillor for leisure, Adele Barnett-Ward, also lost her seat in Thames Ward to Green candidate David Clarke.

While Reform UK are doing well around the country, in Reading the party started the night with just one councillor, and by the end of the night it had none.

Mitchell lost to Conservative candidate Alex Smith in Emmer Green, however he still thinks his party is turning a corner in Reading.

"I am very encouraged by the sheer size of the Reform vote across Reading," he added.

"This has been considered a Labour stronghold for decades and it was always going to be difficult when you're starting from the ground up, but hundreds, thousands of people have voted for reform in Reading.

"Yes, it may not be enough to get us over the line just yet, but that is a real base on which to build."

The Greens started the night with eight councillors and now have eleven.

Green leader for Reading Borough Council and councillor Rob White said: "We've made gains where we've been working hard and those councillors are going to be back out next week, working hard, tackling the cost of living crisis, making housing more affordable and tackling congestion and pollution problems.

"We're getting support from young people but having knocked on many doors across the town we're getting support from old people, from young people, from people that are new to the town, new to the country - we're getting support from all different sectors."