Tories crush Labour in historic win

Philip Atkins’ Tories won 51 of the 62 seats – up from 34 to secure a historic third term for the party which has held power since 2009.

Sue Woodward’s Labour Party won just 10 seats, a net loss of 14 from 2013.

UKIP and the Greens lost their councillors while independent Jill Hood beat Tory Philip Jones in Stone. There were chants of ‘four more years’ as the results were revealed yesterday as the county map turned into a sea of blue.

Councillor Atkins declared the victory as a ‘vote of confidence’ in his administration.

He said: “This is confirmation of the good work we have been doing locally.

Economy

“The economy is the most important thing providing jobs for people and ensuring people who need us the most, vulnerable adults, children, and the disabled get the support they need.

"The General Election in my view has not interfered with the local election. Theresa May needs a strong and stable mandate to deal with Brexit, that’s what people on the doors have been telling us.

“I certainly anticipated we would gain a number of seats from the feedback we were getting. We distributed around 370,000 leaflets between our 62 candidates.

“The feedback we got was that this was very much an election on local issues.

“We picked up issues around potholes which came to us. But also we spread the message around what we are doing for public health with the population getting older, and providing good schools for children and generally being a well-run council.

“We have the third lowest county council tax in the country. I’d like to say a big thank-you to the electorate who have put us in for an unprecedented third term. We should not forget Staffordshire was Labour for 28 years before we came in eight years ago. I am very thankful for their vote of confidence in what we are doing.”

Mrs Woodward, who is now the only Labour councillor in Burntwood and Lichfield, said it had been a ‘terrible’ day for the party and blamed national issues.

She said: “It is very difficult for councillors to buck the national trend. People vote on the national picture. This is a message to our leadership they need to listen to what people are saying. Not just within the Westminster bubble and not within that M25 circle, but across the whole country. We’ve fought a really tough campaign.

“We were working really hard but when the General Election was called I thought it’s going to make it much tougher to get the electorate thinking on local issues when they have got 24/7 media coverage on the national picture.”

In Stafford and Stone, the Conservatives won seven of the nine seats with Labour picking up just one seat while independent Jill Hood won her ward in Stone Urban off of Tory Philip Jones. Labour’s Stafford Central councillor Maureen Compton is the party’s sole representative in the county town. There was a turnout of 33.86 per cent in the borough.

There was further heartache in Cannock Chase where the Tories won five of the seven seats available and Labour the remaining two.

Notable casualties were Labour’s George Adamson, the leader of Cannock Chase District Council, and Christine Mitchell who lost their seats in Hednesford and Rawnsley to the Tories. But Alan Dudson held Brereton and Ravenhill while veteran councillor Derek Davis also won his seat in Chadsmoor.

Mr Adamson came third while the Green Party’s Paul Woodhead came fourth. Mr Adamson: “I am disappointed of course but I wish the two new Conservative councillors all of the best I hope they serve Hednesford and Rawnsely well. This was very much about national issues.

"From what people said to us they seemed quite happy with the way the Labour party are running things locally. It is the same everywhere. We did our best but unfortunately it wasn’t enough. We will live to fight another day. These things go around in circles.”

In South Staffordshire, Conservatives won a clean sweep of all eight councillors.

In Burntwood and Lichfield, the Conservatives won seven out of eight seats with just Mrs Woodward’s Burntwood North ward staying with Labour. Elsewhere the Tories won all six seats in Tamworth while in Staffordshire Moorlands they picked up six seats compared to Labour’s one.

In Newcastle-under-Lyme, the Conservatives took six seats while Labour won three.

While in East Staffordshire the Conservatives triumphed with six councillors to Labour’s two. A new cabinet and shadow cabinet will be confirmed on May 25.