Sunderland City Council leader feeling positive about the future following delayed Hendon election result

Sunderland City Council’s overall make-up is now 46 Labour councillors, 15 Liberal Democrats, 13 Conservatives and one Reform UK following the result of Thursday’s (June 15) rearranged Hendon election.

The poll, which was won by Labour’s Cllr Lynda Scanlan, who finished 13 votes ahead of the Liberal Democrat candidate, had initially been due to take place the same time as May’s local elections, where 24 seats were up for grabs.

However following the death of Conservative candidate Syed Ali during campaigning, the election was put on hold and rearranged.

Looking ahead to the future following the result, Labour’s Cllr Graeme Miller, Sunderland City Council leader, said the latest victory puts the party in a “very good place going forward for next year’s elections”.

Speaking after Thursday’s declaration, he said: “The party is in a better place. I think there is still work to be done, but we’ve definitely got people thinking about voting Labour again.

“The vote is generally on the up, but we can’t take any of that for granted and we’ve got to continue to talk to residents and get them to trust us and that’s locally and nationally.

“If we continue doing that I’ve got no doubt that next year will be a very good year for us, whether we have the locals and the general [elections] at the same time or whether they are in different months, I think we will do very well in both.”

Following the May polls, the Liberal Democrats are now the official opposition on the City Council with 15 seats, after leaving with more representatives than the Conservatives, who have 13.

Cllr Paul Edgeworth, who took over as group leader for the Lib Dems in May, also spoke positively about the future for his party after finishing just 13 votes behind Labour in the rearranged Hendon poll.

Speaking at Thursday’s count, he said: “We’ve had really good results like this, very close, but we’ve had similar ones in other parts of the city.

“We’re really looking to expand to all parts of Sunderland; Washington, Houghton, Hetton in the next few years to continue to grow and challenge Labour.

“It’s only when the party in administration at the council has a strong opposition that things start to improve because they know they can’t win without doing some work.

“We’ve got a really strong team of councillors, candidates, activists across the city fighting on the things that matter to people, really trying to fix the basics and stop wasteful spending in Sunderland.”

He also paid tribute to Cllr Niall Hodson, who he has taken over from as Liberal Democrat group leader, for taking the party from “0 councillors seven years ago to being the official opposition”, which they “couldn’t have dreamt of at that time”.

Speaking after May’s local election count, Cllr Antony Mullen, leader of the Sunderland Conservatives, said his party would still continue to provide opposition to Labour and was hopeful their fortunes would improve in future contests, including in future ‘all-out’ council elections.