Labour inflict defeat on Lib Dems in Manchester as opposition halved

Labour have inflicted a major blow on their Liberal Democrat opposition on Manchester council after unseating their deputy leader.

Richard Kilpatrick lost his seat in Didsbury West by 241 votes – cutting the party’s number of councillors to just one – while other Lib Dem hopefuls fell well short elsewhere in the city.

Meanwhile the Green Party celebrated a closely fought victory over Labour in Woodhouse Park to secure their first seat on the council since 2008.

Having forced the largest vote swing at the local elections in 2019, Rob Nunney managed to get 175 votes ahead of Labour’s long-time incumbent Brian O’Neil.

Elsewhere Labour managed to hold every single seat, including putting considerable distance between them and the Lib Dems in Ancoats and Beswick and Withington.

But they will be most pleased with their win in Didsbury West, which has been the sole stronghold of the Lib Dems since 2016.

His successor, Labour’s Debbie Hilal, thanked supporters for their help on what she described as a ‘difficult campaign’.

Labour also reclaimed the two-seat ward of Clayton and Openshaw, with one of the seats claimed by an independent candidate in 2019.

While the Lib Dems were close to unseating Labour in Deansgate in 2019, more than half of the electorate in the city centre ward came out to re-elect Marcus Johns this year.

Labour also held Ancoats and Beswick through Marcia Hutchinson, depriving the Lib Dems of another target seat.

But the other upset of the day came at Labour’s expense with Rob Nunney’s victory for the Greens bringing the party back from the electoral wilderness after 13 years.

The Green councillor will offer the only form of opposition alongside John Leech, who is now the sole Lib Dem member of the council.

The party had been hoping to take Didsbury East and Withington having come within 59 and 103 votes respectively in 2019.

Councillor Leech said: “It’s been a very disappointing day. We were damaged by a significantly higher turnout for the Greater Manchester mayoral elections.

“The people of Didsbury West have spoken, we’ve just got to regroup.”

His opposite number Sir Richard Leese, the leader of Manchester council, described the overall election results as positive despite the ‘disappointing’ loss of Woodhouse Park.

“We've ended up with an overwhelming vote of confidence from Manchester people because in seats we’ve retained we’ve done better than a couple of years ago,” he said.

“Technically we don’t have a Lib Dem opposition anymore as there’s only one and one Green, so there isn’t an opposition group anymore.

“I’m absolutely delighted that we’ve ended up in that position and that’s through hard work by having policies that reflect what’s important to manchester people, particularly the way we’ve dealt with the Covid pandemic.”