Labour lose Bradford to no overall control

Labour has lost Bradford District Council to no overall control, as no party secured a majority.

Reform won 29 seats, up from zero at the last election, but fell shy of the 44 seats needed for a majority. The party won 26% of the vote.

Labour only won 15 seats, meaning it lost a shocking 27.

One of the people to lose her seat was Bradford council leader, Susan Hinchcliffe. She lost her seat in the Windhill and Wrose ward. She had been the leader of the council for a decade.

Reform UK councillors Sally Jane Birch, Stephen Broadbent and Chris Howlett won the ward. This means the ward went from three Labour councillors to three Reform councillors overnight.

The Tories won 18 seats, which is three more than in the previous election, and the Greens won seven, meaning the party lost three. Finally, ‘Independents and others’ lost two seats compared to the previous election.

Labour’s controversial candidates

Daniel Devaney was the party’s candidate for the Clayton and Fairweather Green ward in Bradford. Before the election, he said he was stepping down, wasn’t “really bothered” and was going on holiday. He was upset about public outrage over social media posts.

He claimed he was standing down as a candidate. However, he was one of three councillors whom voters elected for Reform UK in that ward.

This lines up with stories from up and down the country, where Reform has fielded abusive, racist, and completely innapropriate candidates for public office.

Demographic differences

However, Bradford was one of the places where we expected the Green Party to be more successful.

In other constituencies, we have seen a higher proportion of Green Party and Independent votes in areas with a higher proportion of voters who are Muslim and not white, due to the Greens’ stance on Palestine.

Around 61.1%% of people in Bradford are white, whereas 32.1% are Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh. Similarly, 30.5% described themselves as Muslim.

These demographics are similar to those in Blackburn, where Reform also made huge gains.

Luckily for Reform, Bradford has plenty of bins to collect and potholes to fill. Did they really think they’d be stopping the boats?

Feature image via Michael Broomhead/X

By HG

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