Reform UK ousts Labour from Wakefield Council

Reform UK has taken control of Wakefield Council at the expense of the ruling Labour Party, who were almost entirely wiped out.

Labour held a comfortable majority on the council after the 2024 election, controlling 48 of 63 seats, but now has just one representative.

Reform won 58 seats, with two Liberal Democrat councillors elected and one for the Green Party, Labour and the Conservatives respectively.

Ousted council leader Denise Jeffrey, who had been a councillor since 1988, said she was "devastated" for herself and her colleagues, labelling Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer a "toxic" influence on the vote.

John Thomas, Reform branch chairman for Pontefract, Castleford and Normanton, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "This is an absolutely phenomenal result, beyond anything we could have expected."

Thomas said a plan had been written for the first 100 days of Reform's administration in Wakefield.

He added: "Whoever the leader is will sit down with the chief executive (Tony Reeves) and we will see where we go from there."

Jeffrey, who had represented the Castleford Central & Glasshoughton ward for 22 years, said: "Reform are popular with the public - their brand is popular - but I do feel that our vote would have held up more if it hadn't been for people saying on the doorstep 'We can't vote for Keir Starmer and the mistakes that have been made'."

Turnout for Wakefield Council's all-out election, where every seat was up for grabs, was 36.6%, up from 24.94% in 2024.

The new leader of the authority will be elected at an AGM to be held on 20 May, with the Cabinet selected after that point.

Labour had been in control of Wakefield Council since it was created in 1974.

"I'm devastated for myself because I have been on the council for a long time, but I'm devastated for Wakefield Labour Group because they have worked so hard for their communities and to lose their seats today is really devastating," said Jeffrey.

She added: "What people were saying was 'Yes, we know you do so much work locally' - and they were saying it to all of us across the district - 'But we can't vote for Labour nationally because of Keir Starmer'. He's toxic on the doorstep."

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.