Liberal Democrats celebrate as Stockport Council welcomes first party majority in 15 years

Stockport Council will be led by a majority party for the first time in 15 years, after the Liberal Democrats achieved one of their top targets.

Sir Ed Davey's party had campaigned hard in the borough, having come close to taking overall control before.

Meanwhile Labour have seen huge losses across the board, while Reform UK made gains in most areas.

In Stockport, no party has managed to get the 32 seats needed to get control of the council for the last 15 years, although the Lib Dems came closest, heading into the elections with 30 seats.

The Lib Dem's now have a working majority on Stockport Council, with 33 councillors elected, while Labour lost five councillors.

A party spokesperson said: “This is a great result and shows that Liberal Democrat teams can win right across the country.

“Our hardworking local team has held off the rise of Reform – while others sought to sow division and chaos, we focused on the issues that matter.”

Labour now join the Green Party and Reform UK with two councillors each on Stockport Council.

Stockport Council leader Mark Roberts said: "It's great news for us hear. It's a ringing endorsement of the work we do as Liberal Democrats, as local champions that represents the local residents here at Stockport.

"We work really well as a team, but that sense of local champion that we bring into our politics. We work hard, we deliver for our residents, and our residents have backed us today in giving us this majority."

He said he believes the Lib Dems are the party to beat Reform, who won two seats in Stockport- the regions first Reform councillors.

Brian Battle, who won for Reform in the Manor Ward, said: "There's been so much work that has gone into this, I'm just disappointed some of my colleagues didn't get into it."

He said he thinks the party performed well in the region, despite only winning two out of 21 seats available.

Councillor Christine Carrigan, leader of Stockport Labour group, said she was ‘really disappointed’ with the local election results.

She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We now know where we stand for next year, and we absolutely intend to make this fight all the way back to 2027.”

Asked why voters didn’t back Labour in Stockport this year, Councillor Carrigan added: “I can’t answer that question, I think people will absolutely draw their own conclusions.

“I know over the next couple of days there will be lots of discussions about that, I have my own opinions, and we as a Labour group will come together in the coming days and have a conversation about what we think went well, what went wrong, and how we deal with this upcoming year.”

Lisa Smart, the MP for Hazel Grove told ITV Granada she was overjoyed with the result, saying: "It's already council of the year, it's the best place to live in the North West and I couldn't be prouder of the amazing group of Lib Dem campaigners and activists. But I'm most happy for the people of Stockport."

"We've shown what we can do when we're in minority control, I look forward to seeing what the council can do going forward now we're in majority control."

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