Final Sunderland City Council results confirmed as Reform UK seize control with landslide victory
A new political era is dawning in Sunderland today after Reform UK ended Labour’s 52-year grip on the local council.
Reform, led nationally by Nigel Farage, have seized Sunderland City Council in emphatic fashion following Thursday’s ballot.
The party’s newly-elected councillors were jubilant inside Silksworth Community Pool, Tennis and Wellness Centre after it emerged on Friday afternoon that they had clinched 39 seats to assume power on the 75-seat authority.
That figure later climbed to 58 seats with the Liberal Democrats finishing second on 12 seats and Labour in third with five.
Labour, who had controlled the council since its formation in 1974, had gone into the election with 49 of the 75 available seats.
But their numbers were decimated after losing 44 seats.
The Conservatives, Greens and independents have no councillors on the new-look authority.
Reform UK’s victory follows similar success on neighbouring Durham County Durham last year.