Burnley election results: Labour gain four seats in council

The party's parliamentary candidate for Burnley, Oliver Ryan, hailed the "brilliant results" and said it set them up well for a general election.

The party won six seats overall with wins in Brunshaw; Gannow; Gawthorpe; Lanehead; Rosegrove with Lowerhouse and Rosehill with Burnley Wood.

The count underway (Image: NQ)

Fifteen seats were available across the borough, with the Burnley Independent Group taking three, the Conservatives taking three, Liberal Democrats winning two, and the Green Party taking one.

The Burnley Independent Group now has 10 seats overall having lost one to Labour, meaning neither party has the required 23 seats to take full control.

The alliance between the Burnley Independent Group, the Greens, and the Lib Dems now has 22 councillors and would need to partner with either the Tories or Labour to have a majority.

Oliver Ryan, the party’s parliamentary candidate for Burnley, said: “[We’ve had] brilliant results. Good across Burnley and Padiham. We’ve managed to make gains against the Tories, the Greens and the Independents.

“I’m really chuffed. We’ve got some great, hard-working councillors now that are going to work well in those areas.

“We’ve done well everywhere. It sets us up for a general election, which they need to call. Get it called.”

The count was held in the St Peter's Centre (Image: NQ)

The results mirror the fractious nature of politics in the borough that were expected to be on show ahead of election day.

Labour was hit by a major defection over national leader Sir Keir Starmer’s handling of the Israel/Hamas conflict in November, with many of the rebels forming the Burnley Independent Group, including then borough leader Afrasiab Anwar.

At the time, those defecting described their memberships as untenable due to the party’s refusal to demand a ceasefire in the Middle East.