Conservatives lose 26-year control of county council

The Conservative Party has lost its overall majority on Hertfordshire County Council after losing more than half of its seats.

The Conservatives have held a majority at the council for 26 years and are the only party to have had overall control of the county council since it formed in 1974.

With 31 seats, the Liberal Democrats have become the party with the most seats.

However, no party has gained enough seats - 40 - to have overall control of the 78-seat council.

The election on Thursday saw 32% of voters turn out to cast their ballots.

The Conservative leader of the council Richard Roberts has kept his Kings Langley seat, but told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he was disappointed the party lost seats, but it was "reflective of the national mood".

"The national mood hasn't been created in Hertfordshire. It has been created by the vacuum created by the new government coming in and not giving the country the hope and optimism that it was looking for after the general election," he said.

The council will be made up of 31 Liberal Democrats, 22 Conservatives, 14 Reform UK councillors, five Green and five Labour councillors and one Independent.

In 2021, the Liberal Democrats won 23 seats on the council.

Steve Jarvis, the leader of the Liberal Democrats at the authority, said the increase in his party's seats has been "substantial".

"We will be the largest party in the new council and we need to make a start on setting out what we are going to do differently for Hertfordshire," he said.

• As it happened: Live results and reaction from Herts and Bucks

The Liberal Democrat group will now have to decide whether or not Mr Jarvis remains as the leader of the party as they try to form a new administration.

He said: "I think people have just chucked the Conservatives out so I think it is difficult to see what part they would play.

"Who else would play a part? I think that is a discussion that we would need to have both internally within the Liberal Democrat group on the council and with members of other groups."

Hertfordshire has fallen back into no overall control for the first time since the last century and it will now be down to the Liberal Democrats, as the largest party with 31 seats, to make an alliance with other parties and form an administration.

The Conservatives have lost more than half of their councillors with Reform UK grabbing many of them.

Reform UK had just one councillor in the run up to these polls, but the party now finds itself with 14, but presumably the Liberal Democrats will have to look elsewhere for a partnership.

The Green Party also has leapt from one to five councillors, while Labour has lost one to end up with five as well, and there is one Independent.

The authority will also be looking for a new leader after four years of Conservative Richard Roberts in charge.

Liberal Democrat group leader Steve Jarvis would be the favourite, but he told the BBC that his group would have to decide whether or not to keep him as their leader.

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