Leeds City Council local elections 2021: Latest as results come from Leeds First Direct Arena

Labour HOLD Hunslet and Riverside

Labour HOLD Kippax and Methley

The first results actually came in last night, as they were counted early for religious reasons.

They were:

Alwoodley - CON HOLD

Neil Alan Buckley – Conservative Party - 4,481

Howard Graham Dews – Yorkshire Party - 245

Amy Margot Hegan – Labour Party - 2,370

Brian Jackson – Alliance for Green Socialism - 152

Louise Mary Jennings – WEP - 174

Roderic Parker – Liberal Democrats - 328

Roundhay (two vacant seats) - Lab GAINS:

Zara Hussain - Labour Party - 4,198

Lisa Martin - Labour Party - 4,357

The two Roundhay seats were not being contested by the incumbents, but the results are not a surprise as they are safe Labour seats, our Local Democracy Reporter Richard Beecham tells us.

In total, Labour have 19 seats up for re-election, with eight for the Conservatives, one for the Lib Dems, two for independent groups, one for the greens and two vacancies.

One of the big names vying for re-election is Coun James Lewis (Kippax and Methley) who was recently appointed the new leader of Leeds City Council after Judith Blake stepped down.

Following the last local elections in 2019, Leeds’s Labour group boasted 57 councillors – seven above the 50 needed for a working majority on the council and since 2019, Labour’s numbers have been reduced to 54 due to resignations.

This would mean Labour would have to make a net loss of five seats or more in order to be without a majority for the first time since 2010 but, no other party than Labour could mathematically gain a working majority at this election. For example, the second biggest party on the council is the Conservatives with 23 seats. Even if they took ALL the Labour seats and kept all of their own, they would still only have 42 seats – eight short of a majority, but still five more than Labour.

Leeds City Council may only be counting their results today - but there’s been a lot of results from across the country since polling day on Thursday.

Here’s a quick summary:

– The Conservatives won the Hartlepool by-election, with Jill Mortimer seizing the seat from Labour with a majority of 6,940.

– Tory Ben Houchen was re-elected as Tees Valley mayor by a landslide on the first count, taking almost 73% of the vote.

– Labour’s Ros Jones was re-elected Doncaster mayor while Joanne Anderson became Liverpool’s first black female mayor.

– With results available from 84 out of 143 English councils, the Conservatives had a net gain of seven authorities and 173 seats, and Labour a net loss of four authorities and 164 seats.

– In Scotland, the SNP gained East Lothian from Labour and Ayr and Edinburgh Central from the Tories.

– After 48 of 129 results in the Scottish Parliamentary contest, 39 seats have gone to the SNP, four to Liberal Democrats, three to the Tories and two to Labour.

– In Wales, after 52 of 60 seats were declared, Labour had 30, the Conservatives had 12, Plaid Cymru had nine and the Liberal Democrats had one.