The towns and cities that show politics in England is splintering from two-party system

In local elections in England, Labor lost more than a thousand councilors and control of dozens of councils across the country.

Some results are still being announced, but Sir Keir Starmer’s party has lost control of at least 35 councils; 1,442 party councilors lost their seats; these include historically safe strongholds such as the “red wall”, where Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has made seismic gains.

The party’s grip on London has also been severely weakened, with Labor losing control of almost half of the 21 boroughs it previously held in the capital following a strong showing by Zack Polanski’s Green Party.

The Greens defeated Labor mayors in Hackney and Lewisham to take control of Waltham Forest council, while the Conservative Party also suffered major losses, losing Essex County Council and Suffolk to Reform.

The result provides further evidence of a country moving away from the traditional two-party system, with strong support for other parties in local elections at least so far. Here are some of the towns and cities highlighting the trend:

Sunderland – Reform Labor Party

The north-east port city of Sunderland has had a Labor Council since the metropolitan borough was established in 1974, but no longer exists.

Going into this election Labor held 49 seats, but the number of seats fell to just five as Reform cruised to victory with 58 councillors. The Liberal Democrats won 12 votes, relegating Labor to third place in one of the central councils.

The council, which includes Education Minister Bridget Phillipson’s Westminster seat, was cited as a significant victory by Mr Farage on Friday evening.

He said: “It’s the same thing everywhere, we’re on the verge of winning Wakefield outright, we’ve just declared Sunderland are for us.”

St Helens – Reform Labor

St Helens, another Labor Party seat, was the first part of Merseyside’s red castle to fall for Mr Farage’s Reform.

While Labor lost 25 seats, it gained 31 seats on the council. Labor has controlled the local authority since 2010 and the town’s two MPs have always been Labour.

However, the party has only two representatives left in the district council.

Nigel Farage took a victory lap in the Merseyside town, formerly an industrial powerhouse of glass manufacturing and coal mining, and said: “We have absolutely torn up the biggest piece of history of the Labor vote in the north of England.”

Essex – Reform Conservative

Mr Farage said that after Reform UK took control of Essex County Council they had “not only brought down the ‘red wall’, they had also brought down the blue wall”.

The Conservatives lost their majority in Essex for the first time since 2001, with Reform gaining 53 seats while the Conservatives lost 41 seats, leaving them with 13 seats.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch’s seat is in North West Essex but she said she was “very proud” of her party’s election results despite losing hundreds of council seats across England.

Hackney – Labor to Green

The Green Party has dealt a double blow to Labor in Hackney, where it won the elected mayoral election and wrested control of the council from Sir Keir’s party.

The borough has been under Labor control since 2002 but some 42 Green councilors were elected, leaving Labor with just nine seats, losing 34 seats.

The Greens’ Zoe Garbett said after sacking the Labor mayor: Independent “People are disillusioned with the old order parties” in the Green Party’s first victory in the mayoral election.

“I’m really excited to show what we can do as the Green Council here in Hackney and what it means for London and the country,” he said.

Asked how confident he was that the Green Party’s momentum would continue, he said: “Absolutely it will. You know, every time the Greens have been elected in Hackney, people have seen what we have to offer and that’s just part of the story that’s growing and continuing.”

Bradford – Labor is not under the control of any party

Labor has lost control of Bradford council to continue delivering bad news for the party in Yorkshire.

Reform England fails to take control but was expected to become the largest party after taking 29 of the first 75 declared seats; The Conservatives were on 18 and Labor on 15.

The party ended more than 50 years of Labor rule in Barnsley and also took Calderdale and Wakefield from Labor, which had lost control of Leeds.

Bexley – Labor to Conservative Party

The Conservatives have had some success in the capital.

They took back Westminster City Council from Labor and became Wandsworth’s largest party.

They also retained their majorities in Bexley, Bromley, Hillingdon, Kensington and Chelsea.

It won 29 seats in Bexley but Reform performed well, winning seven councillors.

London: Nine councils controlled by no party

Not since the current system of local government in the capital was established in 1964 have councils in London been placed under general control.

There are nine London councils where no party won enough seats to form a majority.

Eight of these were previously controlled by Labor (Barnet, Brent, Enfield, Haringey, Lambeth, Newham, Southwark, Wandsworth), but there is not yet overall control of Croydon.

The previous record for the largest number of London councils without overall control after a local election was eight, set in 2006.