Election 2021: Labour loses control of Durham County Council

Labour has lost overall control of Durham County Council for the first time in a century.

The party lost 21 seats in Thursday's vote leaving it with 53 of the authority's 126 councillors - 11 short of a majority.

Independents and smaller parties won 31 seats, a collective gain of three.

The Conservatives secured 24 seats, a gain of 14, with the Liberal Democrats taking a total of 17 across the county, up three.

With the council now under no overall control, BBC Look North political editor Richard Moss said Labour clearly needed to do a deal with one of the other parties.

He added a partnership with Liberal Democrats or some of the independents "seems most likely as there's not really a rainbow coalition as an alternative to a Labour minority administration".

Discussions are likely to take place ahead of the annual county council meeting on 26 May.

The council said overall turnout was 36.35%, up from 31.25% in 2017.

The final results were not announced until late on Saturday after votes for the Durham Police and Crime Commissioner had to be counted twice because "discrepancies" were found in the first batch of ballot papers tallied.

Labour's Joy Allen eventually claimed victory with 80,510 votes, just over 3,000 ahead of Conservative challenger George Jabbour on 77,352.

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