IT was a historic night for Reform UK, who swept to victory across Tameside by winning 18 of the 19 seats contested in this year’s council elections.
In contrast, Labour suffered one of its worst local election results in decades, losing overall control of Tameside Council for the first time since 1979.
The party lost 13 seats and managed to retain just one – St Peter’s in Ashton-under-Lyne.
Following a dramatic night at Dukinfield Town Hall, it leaves the political make-up of the local authority looking markedly different, with Labour having 25 seats (four short of a majority), Reform on 19, Conservatives with five, the Independent Group on four, and Independents with four.
Many billed the results – where one out of three seats in each Tameside ward were contested by 93 candidates – as an indication of the country’s feelings about the current Labour government.
And Tameside followed the early pattern emerging across the country with Reform gains and Labour losses becoming the narrative.
Reform – who had its first Tameside councillor elected last year when Allan Hopwood won the Longdendale by-election – fielded a candidate in every ward this time and the party headed by Nigel Farage have now dramatically increased their number of councillors in the chamber.
With all results declared at around 4am on Friday, May 8, the Reform group celebrated by unveiling a banner which depicted the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer receiving a P45 – the official document that employers must provide when an employee leaves a job.
Labour MPs Angela Rayner and Jonathan Reynolds were not present at the count, while newly elected Green MP Hannah Spencer attended to show her support for her party – which fielded candidates in every ward bar St Peter’s after reporting its membership has more than doubled since last summer.
The first result of the night, announced at around 1.30am, saw Sharon Barker elected for Reform with an 898 majority, winning the seat from former Labour turned Independent councillor Ann Holland – who earlier told The Correspondent she blamed Starmer for the anti-Labour feeling that has taken hold.
In the hotly contested Stalybridge South seat, which had the most candidates (seven) standing, the Conservatives’ Liam Billington – who had been a councillor since 2018 – lost out to Jenny Ardron-Adams from Reform.
The Conservatives also lost the Ashton Hurst seat, where Dan Costello had decided not to stand for re-election after five years in office, as their candidate Rachel Taylor was pipped to the post by Keiron Lawrence for Reform by a majority of 604.
The borough’s longest-serving councillor John Taylor, who had been in office for Labour since 1984, was unseated in Dukinfield by Reform’s James Rhodes, who stormed to victory with a 821 majority.
The only Labour councillor elected was Atta Ul-Rasool, who was the party’s candidate in St Peter’s after Warren Brady decided not to stand. It came, though, after the only recount of the night, which was ordered by Independent councillor Kaleel Khan – acting as agent for Independent candidate Ahmed Mehmood.
Claims that the Labour Party had fielded “fake independents” in order to divide votes and help their candidate win in that ward – which had been dismissed as “nonsense” – had dominated the campaign.
Turnout across the borough was, for local elections, relatively high with the average across the wards being 40.25 per cent.
It was highest in Mossley, at 46.8 per cent, where former Civic Mayor of Tameside Tafheen Sharif lost her seat for Labour, as Reform’s Gary Roylance won it by a majority of 74.
The slimmest majority was in Hyde Werneth, where Christopher Stones won the seat for Reform by just 69 votes from current Civic Mayor Shibley Alam.
On the flip side, the biggest majority came in Denton South – the seat that was vacant following the resignation in December 2025 of Claire Reid, who was embroiled in the ‘Trigger Me Timbers’ WhatsApp scandal – as Audra Murray won by a whopping 1,040 votes for Reform.
In the last ward to be declared, former council leader Brenda Warrington was another Labour casualty in Denton West, which was claimed by Reform’s Dan Bennett with a 1,029 majority.
We will bring you more coverage and reaction to the election results on The Correspondent website and social media channels.
Click here to see all the ward-by-ward results from the night.