• 3 Labour and Co-operative councillor • 1 Green Party councillor • 1 other councillor Cllr Henig will remain leader of Durham County Council until the annual meeting of the council on May 26 when the new leader will be unveiled. It is understood Cllr Marshall will now have the role of working with other parties and councillors to determine how power will be shared. Helen Lynch, head of legal and democratic services, said: “The leader of the council is appointed by elected members at the annual meeting of the council. Cllr Henig remains as leader until the meeting on Wednesday 26 May, when a new leader will be appointed.
Labour face tough two weeks trying to hold on to power in County Durham after losing majority
Labour tough two weeks trying to hold on to power in County Durham after losing majority LABOUR faces a tough two weeks trying to hold on to power, after it lost overall control of Durham County Council for the first time in a century. THE Labour Party lost 15 seats on Durham County Council following Thursday’s election which left it with 53 of the authority’s 126 councillors – 11 short of a majority. Independents and smaller parties won 31 seats, a collective gain of three, which includes the authority’s first Green Party member Jonathan Elmer.
Shock as well-known sector figures lose their seats
County Councils Network members are reeling from news that their chair David Williams (Con) has been ousted from his Hertfordshire CC seat by just 41 votes, meaning he also lost his national chairmanship.
Elsewhere, other longstanding local government figures from both main parties have also been unseated or face leadership challenges locally.
Although the Conservatives secured a majority of 14 in Hertfordshire, their leader Cllr Williams, who has been CCN chair since 2019, was narrowly beaten by Liberal Democrat candidate Paul de Kort in his seat of Harpenden North East by 2,063 votes to 2,022.
CCN’s executive committee will now work with the Conservatives, which remain the network s largest political group, to put in place an interim leader ahead of an internal election. A new chairman elect will be formally confirmed in September.