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Manchester Evening News

National

John Scheerhout & Lyell Tweed

Rochdale council local elections 2023 results in full

Rochdale Council Rochdale Neil Emmott MIP Middleton Richard Jackson Littleborough John Taylor Milnrow The Liberal Democrats

Labour maintained its iron grip on Rochdale council at this year's local elections. Victory for the party was rubber-stamped when leader Neil Emmott easily saw off a push from the Middleton Independents Party (MIP).

It means Labour has 46 seats, taking two from MIP, which now has just two councillors; and one from the Tories, who are left with nine. The Lib Dems held onto the one seat they were fighting, leaving them with three councillors, as before.

Town hall leader Coun Emmott, who only just saw off his MIP rival by 150 votes at last year's all-out elections, cruised to victory this time around in West Middleton, polling 1,120 votes, more than all his rivals put together.

Labour also ousted the MIP in two wards, taking East and North Middleton from the independents, and also taking Littleborough Lakeside from the Conservatives.

Their candidate only just squeezed past John Hartley, who represented Labour for nine years until he defected to the Tories.

Following his resounding victory, Coun Emmott told the Manchester Evening News: "I'm very pleased we got two seats from MIP. They were quite successful last year because they were shiny and new, but I think after 12 months they were kind of baked in.

"I'm very pleased we did as well as we did."

Coun Emmott has famously had some run-ins with MIP, which accused him of trying to 'orchestrate' the demise of Middleton's market.

Coun Bernard Wynne, who lost his seat in East Middleton, made a series of explosive claims about Coun Emmott at a Rochdale council meeting in December - shortly after the authority stepped in to take Middleton market under its control.

However, at a full council meeting on March 22 Coun Wynne offered his 'sincere apologies' for his actions in December - which he said he realised violated the council's code of conduct.

After he was vanquished by Coun Emmott in West Middleton, MIP chairman Peter Shore vowed his party would return a stronger force in future.

He told the M.E.N: "I'm disappointed. We exceeded all expectations last year and we took five seats."

He said debate about plans to build 30 affordable homes in Langley, in a field known locally as The Ponderosa, had 'clouded the issue' for the party.

"We have to sit down and discuss what went wrong, if it went wrong, and if we think it went wrong to see what we can do to come back stronger," said Mr Shore, who said his party only wanted a 'fair share' of investment for Middleton.

Labour made one gain from the Tories as Richard Jackson fought off Labour councillor of nine years, John Hartley, who ran for the Conservatives, to win Littleborough Lakeside. Coun Jackson squeezed through by seven votes to win the swing seat back for Labour.

"It was a very hard fought campaign, we always knew it was going to be close," Coun Jackson told the M.E.N. "John [Hartley] was obviously well-known as the councillor before, but I’m also very involved in the community, and am very grateful to my team for fighting hard to win this back."

Coun Jackson said he believed the ward was won on local issues, with national politics a secondary thought. "For the people of Littleborough local issues came first," he added.

"On the doorstep we focused on local issues that mattered the most to people. I'm glad we fell on the right side of the vote."

Mr Hartley said: "It's one of those things. It feels good to get that many votes as we didn’t think it was looking good at first. But you can’t help but feel if we’d pushed just that little bit more we could have found those extra votes but we’ve done very well."

Elsewhere, the Liberal Democrats held on to Milnrow and Newhey with incumbent David Bamford holding off Labour by 362 votes. "It's fantastic to be elected for a third time and for my vote to go up," Coun Bamford said.

"It just shows residents actively see what we do in Milnrow and Newhey. We will keep doing what we do best."

The Liberal Democrats had also eyed up Spotland and Falinge as a potential win but fell 346 votes short of Labour's incumbent, Coun Amber Nisa.

Rochdale council's cabinet member for highways and housing and Balderstone and Kirkholt ward councillor, Daniel Meredith, saw his Labour colleague, Elsie Blundell, comfortably hold on to her seat. Of Labour's performance in these Rochdale elections he said: "It's as good as it's going to get."

Coun Meredith added that the situation nationally, with 'people on the breadline', had been a big factor for Labour gains in this election. "The national picture has definitely come into it," he said.

"People have started to see their council being affected by years of Tory cuts. What's happening nationally has really fed into this election."

Rochdale's Conservative group leader, Coun John Taylor, who comfortably regained his Wardle, Shore and West Littleborough seat, said the Conservative’s diminishing reputation nationally was having an effect on their performance locally.

"Nationally the Conservatives are unpopular at the moment," he told the M.E.N.

"What's happening nationally is being reflected in these local results. It's what we expected, it's a huge swing away from the Conservatives. But, we've put in a lot of hard work into our wards and people want us to provide a strong opposition on Rochdale council to hold the massive Labour group to account.

"The borough deserves a strong opposition and to feel like they have a choice. I have no doubt that in the fullness of time the Conservatives will become more popular everywhere and we will win more seats here.

"That is for the benefit of everyone to have a strong opposition and we will work very very hard to do that."

Returning council leader Coun Emmott said it was looking good for Labour in next year's general election. He said: "I think Keir Starmer is an excellent leader. I think people see him as a safe pair of hands. He's not flashy or bombastic."

The final make-up of Rochdale Council is:

Labour: 46

Conservative: 9

Lib Dems: 3

Middleton Independents Party: 2