First the Lydiard and Freshbrook seat was lost to Labour and a short time later the council’s Deputy Leader Brian Mattock lost his Old Town seat.
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When the council elect the Mayor of Redditch Ukip will have the deciding vote, if they win a seat, and could therefore decide who has final vote in the result of a deadlock, Labour or Conservatives.
The Conservatives comfortably held on to overall control of St Albans district council in an election night of few surprises.
Conservative Suffolk Coastal MP Therese Coffey described it as a “disappointing” result.
As the final result was announced at 3.30am, council leader Phil Davies said: “I’m delighted we’ve held onto all our seats”.
Labour maintained its predicted stranglehold on Sunderland City Council in an election which still came with a couple of surprises.
“This really is a breakthrough for Ukip in Wales in particular because we’ve never had seats on the Welsh Assembly before”.
He added his priorities will be helping young people into work and accessing job opportunities as well as looking after old folk across the area.
Yesterday 13 of the 37 seats were contested, and Labour increased its majority from one to three, holding on to all its seats and taking Southgate from the Tories. I am so pleased people remember what I have done and that they have re-elected me.
“What we’ve been faced with is a barrage of lies and hype from the Liberal Democrats who at one time were saying that they would win seven seats”, said Coun Richard.
For the Liberal Democrats, the big victory of the night was keeping Councillor Stan Pajak in his Eastcott seat despite strong pressure from Labour.
“However, we will continue our fight as a party for better government in this city moving into next year’s county council elections and the 2018 city council elections”.
According to BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Labour’s share of the votes is down by five percent on 2011 and down by eight percent on 2012, although compared to 2015 results, it is up three percent.
Dennis Willetts, Conservative group leader, said: “I am very disappointed”.
Despite the losses, fresh Conservatives joined the council including Zoe Huggins, who retained Privett for the party.
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“We’ve worked that little bit harder and want to make a difference”.
