The Conservative Party has been left with no representatives on Nottingham City Council for the first time in history as one member says they have taken a 'battering' in this year's elections. No other party than Labour has led the city council since 1988 and, despite a tumultuous four years in office, which has included the ongoing fallout of Robin Hood Energy's collapse, Labour has once again comfortably won enough seats to form a strong majority following this year's local elections.
Voters across Nottinghamshire headed to polling stations on Thursday (May 4) to choose their local representatives and counting for Nottingham started at the Harvey Hadden Sports Village the following day. The election campaign has seen most parties pledging to form an opposition on Nottingham City Council, rather than attempting to win enough seats to control it themselves.
Aside from Labour, the only exception to this was the Nottingham Independents. But with the party fielding 28 candidates this year, they would have needed every single one of their candidates to win to end up with a majority of just one. In the end, the party won just three.
Read more: Tories lose full control on Newark and Sherwood District Council
The Conservative Party's performance comes following a bitter row in the Nottingham branch, which ended in both of its only previous sitting Tory councillors deciding to stand as independents this year. Roger Steel was the councillor who had been deselected, causing Andrew Rule to leave the party in protest.
Nottingham's council has been known as a city council since city status was granted in 1897 and, from that time, there has never been an election which ended in the Conservatives having zero councillors. The party's worst result before now was back in 1995, when they were left with one Nottingham City Council member.
Paul Ruane, the Chairman of the Nottingham City Conservative Federation, said: "It is extremely disappointing. I was at the very least hoping that we were going to hold on to our existing two seats and that we were not going to end up with no councillors.
"Particularly with the track record of the Labour administration in Nottingham over the past four years, Nottingham City Council now more than ever needs a strong opposition and I'm disappointed today that we haven't been able to get any councillors over the line.
"The Conservative Party has unfortunately taken a battering across the country and I think in Nottingham we've simply fallen victim to that. There are a lot of people in this city who want the Conservatives to win, but not every Conservative was motivated to turn out and vote."
In terms of the "battering" referenced by Mr Ruane, it was perhaps not seen in Nottinghamshire to the same extent as in the rest of the country, with the Conservative Party losing hundreds of councillors. But it did still suffer heavy losses in its strongholds of Newark and Sherwood and Rushcliffe.
In Newark, the party's previous leader lost his seat and the Conservatives lost their control of the council, which is now in no overall control. In Rushcliffe, the Conservatives managed to hold on to the authority, but they have been left in a weaker position than before.
For Labour, it managed to gain full control of Broxtowe Borough Council and Mansfield District Council, which had both previously been under no overall control, though there were some Conservatives gains in Mansfield. Labour also managed to retain its majority on Gedling Borough Council, though the Conservatives did gain two seats there.
The first counts in this year's local elections were held at Bassetlaw and Ashfield district councils. The former saw Labour comfortably retain their majority, though the Conservatives did make gains there too. The Ashfield Independents strengthened their majority on its district council, with just three opposition members now sitting on that authority.
Bucking a national trend which saw Labour picking up seats and full councils across the country, the party has been left with just one Ashfield councillor - despite it having led the authority as recently as 2018. One notable councillor to have returned to Ashfield District Council is Tom Hollis, whose victory came despite a conviction in court for harassment and careless driving less than a year ago.
One of the two remaining Conservatives on the council said the party was unable to compete with the "electoral machine" of the Ashfield Independents. But this was given short shrift by leader Jason Zadrozny, who said: "This is the biggest political party in Europe, the idea that they can't outman us is not true. They're just a bit lazy."
The Conservatives had been playing down expectations heavily ahead of this year's local elections, so gains in Labour strongholds such as Bassetlaw and Gedling are certainly noteworthy. But a heavy reduction of support in its own strongholds, coupled with a total lack of existence on Nottingham City Council, makes it unavoidable to conclude that this was a bad set of elections in Nottinghamshire for the Conservatives.
These votes have come just a year before the next expected general election. But despite the current situation, Nottingham's Paul Ruane remained optimistic about the future.
He added: "Even in 1995 we managed to hold on to one councillor and obviously we haven't today. But I still absolutely think that there is a future for the Conservative Party in Nottingham.
"The Conservative Party has a remarkable amount of resilience, we have been wiped off of councils before and then got into control on those councils. We can come back from this."
On Nottingham City Council, council leader Councillor David Mellen was also re-elected to his Dales ward for Labour. He said: “There are no Conservatives on the council for the first time ever.
“The people have Nottingham have spoken they have put their confidence in Nottingham Labour despite the challenges we’ve had over the last couple of years.”
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