Wakefield local election results: 'toxic Starmer brand' sees Labour go from 57 councillors to just one
Reform UK, which won 58 councillors, said the result was “beyond our imagination”.
The Labour Party has gone from 57 councillors to just one in Wakefield, with Reform taking a historic victory that was “beyond our wildest imaginations”, according to one councillor.
Labour has run Wakefield Council since its inception in 1974, only having three leaders in that time.
However, current leader Denise Jeffery was one of the first Labour casualties, with Reform taking all three seats in her Castleford and Glasshoughton.
Ms Jeffery has been a councillor since 1989 and has been the leader of the local authority since 2019.
She said: “I think it’s a toxic Starmer brand because on the doorstep people were saying to me we know you do a good job and we want to vote for you … but we want you to get rid of Starmer, he’s toxic.
“I feel so angry that local government has been thrown to the wolves like this, because we do such a good job.
“We’re the ones that people come to for the potholes filling, looking after the children, looking after the elderly.
“We do all the bread and butter stuff that matters to people, and Wakefield and the district have lost all that today.”
Labour’s only surviving councillor was Yubi Ayub, who won Wakefield East ward with the most votes, securing a four-year term on the council.
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 … beyond our wildest imaginations”.
Coun Thomas, newly elected for Alftofts and Whitwood, said the Reform group would hold an annual general meeting on Monday to elect a leader, deputy leader and appoint other senior roles.
He said: “We will hit the ground running and take it from there.
“Whoever has got the relevant skills, we will assign to those portfolios.
“We have got some real cracking councillors.”
Mr 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.”
The Liberal Democrats won two councillors and the Tories won one.