Sunderland City Council elections: Labour joyful after successes in city, with all eyes now on General Election

Labour has strengthened its grip on power at Sunderland City Council following the latest local elections, after taking several seats from opposition parties.

Senior figures in Wearside’s ruling Labour Group said they were pleased with the results of the 2024 polls, which saw the Labour Party increase its overall majority on the city council.

As the polls closed at 10pm on Thursday, May 2, candidates flocked to Silksworth Community Pool, Tennis and Wellness Centre where votes were verified and counted for the 25 seats contested across the city.

:: Full election results here

After the final ward was declared in the early hours of Friday, Labour had successfully defended all its seats while gaining seats in several wards including St Anne’s, Washington South, Barnes, St Peter’s and Hendon.

The Wearside Liberal Democrats failed to gain a third seat from the Conservatives in Fulwell, and also lost a councillor in Hendon to a Labour candidate.

Three Labour cabinet members, Kevin Johnston, Kelly Chequer and John Price, also defended their seats in Copt Hill, Southwick, and Houghton respectively.

As the city council holds its elections by ‘thirds’, only 25 of 75 seats on the council were contested on May 2, with around half involving opposition parties defending their seats.

Although Conservatives defended several key seats in Fulwell, St Chad’s and St Michael’s. they were left counting their losses after losing wards to Labour in Barnes, St Anne’s and St Peter’s.

This represented a loss of three councillors, and the Conservatives losing their status as the official opposition on the council to the Liberal Democrats.

Councillor Phil Tye, chair of Sunderland Labour Group, welcomed the results.

Speaking at the local election count, he said: “It’s been a really, really good night for us to be able to take seats from the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives and we thank the residents of the city for that.

“There’s a significant amount of work that we’re doing in the city that residents can now see.

“The difference in the numbers in some of the wards where we were really chasing, their majorities and Conservative majorities are well down.

“It’s a ringing endorsement for the Labour Party that the country is ready for change.

“It’s about time the Conservatives move aside and lets have an election and start putting this country back together”.

After losing a large number of Labour councillors over elections in 2019 and 2021, the Labour Party started to reverse the trend in 2023 when it picked up three seats.

Following local election results on May 2, 2024, and two Lib Dem councillors defecting to Labour in late-2023, the Labour Party has increased its overall majority on Sunderland City Council further.

Cllr Tye said the 2024 local election results represented increased confidence in Labour and its agenda for the city, from major regeneration plans, to policies supporting the most vulnerable.

He added local election results were an early message from voters ahead of the General Election.

Although the Liberal Democrats lost a councillor in Hendon, the party successfully defended seats in Doxford, Millfield, Pallion and Sandhill.

The tightly-contested Pallion ward, which was previously held by Lib Dem Cllr Colin Nicholson before he defected to sit as an independent, saw Lib Dem candidate Stephen Donkin elected with a majority over Labour.

Cllr Paul Edgeworth, leader of the Wearside Liberal Democrats, said the results mean his party is once again the official opposition on the city council.

The Lib Dem leader said he was hopeful the party’s fortunes would improve in future, including in ‘all-out’ council elections in 2026.

These elections will effectively reset the council under new ward boundaries, with all 75 council seats across 25 wards up for grabs.

Cllr Edgeworth, who was re-elected to the Sandhill ward at the May 2, 2024, elections, said he was “over the moon” and thanked residents for their support.

Cllr Edgeworth added: “I think it’s clear that our message of hard work all year round and proper representation, holding the council to account and getting things done for local people has really paid off”.

Reform UK, which stood candidates in all city wards, and the Green Party, which stood candidates in the majority of city wards, did not see any new councillors elected.

Councillor Paul Donaghy, a former Conservative who defected to the party in early 2023, lost his Reform UK seat in Washington South to Labour.

Mr Donaghy, who is also standing as Reform UK’s candidate in the North East Mayoral Combined Authority elections due to be declared this week, praised Labour’s local election campaign in Washington South.

He said: “I’ve been in and out of Washington South and I admit I didn’t do as much as I could there, so I think the writing was on the wall.

“Labour have put a lot of effort into it and I have congratulated the candidate [Brandon Feeley] who has worked hard.

“If he hadn’t done anything and just got in for being the Labour candidate I would have had a grudge to bear but the guy has worked for the last year so fair play to him”.

Mr Donaghy added that the “tide was turning” and that local election results showed Reform UK was “becoming the second party in Sunderland”.

The overall results on May 2 for Sunderland City Council’s 25 wards saw 18 Labour, three Conservative and four Lib Dem councillors elected, or re-elected.

The council’s overall make-up is now 53 Labour councillors, 12 Liberal Democrats and 10 Conservatives.