Chorley local elections: Reform reveal opposition plans and Labour reflect on losses
All the reaction to the big vote in the borough.
Reform UK has surged to become the official opposition on Chorley Council after winning half of the seats that were contested at the local elections.
The ruling Labour group retained overall control of the authority, because only a third of the total number of places at the town hall were up for grabs in Thursday’s vote.
That meant it was mathematically impossible for the party – which has run the borough since 2012 – to lose its grip on power, as it held 37 out of the overall 42 seats going into the polls.
However, of the 14 that were up for election, Reform won seven, while Labour held onto five of the 13 it was defending from the last time this tranche of seats was elected back in 2022.
The Green Party secured its first ever councillor in the borough, while the Tories – previously the main opposition group – were pushed to third place on the authority, in spite of managing to hold onto the one seat they were trying to retain, that of group leader Alan Platt.
Cllr Martin Topp, who has spent the last year as Chorley Council’s only Reform UK member – after winning a by-election in 2025 – said being part of a larger group would help bring what he claimed was much-needed scrutiny to the authority.
“It’s really about ensuring that what [is] happening is all legit and above board.
“I’ve been able to identify this year, as a lone councillor, some of the shortcomings and underhand tactics that they are using [regarding] spending and HMOs [houses of multiple occupation],” Cllr Topp said.
Labour council leader Alistair Bradley said he welcomed challenge, but that it had to come with a purpose.
“Scrutiny is good, but what we don’t want to see is what Reform have done at Lancashire County Council, which is come in and really do nothing – not really have any new ideas.
“Tell us what you want to do – [and] make them positive ideas, don’t just criticise everything everybody else is doing. In Chorley we try to do consensual politics – and everybody’s views are taken on board,” Cllr Bradley said.
Reflecting on the reasons for a bruising night for Labour in the borough, he pointed towards central government – although he did not identify a deficiency in policy, but rather presentation.
“Labour’s doing some great stuff – waiting lists are coming down, [there are] better standards in schools, [improved] renters’ rights – but it’s been buried by a lot of nonsense about leaderships and distractions around the Westminster bubble,” the veteran politician said.
He paid tribute to “hardworking” Labour councillors who had lost their seats – which he said was “no reflection of them”. One of the most high-profile Labour departures was the outgoing borough mayor for the last year, Cllr Alistair Morwood, who had previously been the planning cabinet member on the authority and had served as a councillor since 2014.
Meanwhile, Olga Cash – elected as Chorley’s first Green councillor – said the group had been rewarded for its strategy of focussing its campaign efforts on the ward where she was elected, Chorley South West.
She said she was used to being “the Green in the room – the person that puts people first and sustainability to the forefront”.
“Also, given what’s happening right now, I think learning to collaborate and learning to be bigger than the divisions that are happening at the moment is really important,” Cllr Cash added.
Cllr Platt said he wanted to thank those voters who had enabled him to remain as Chorley group leader by helping him retain his Croston, Mawdsley and Euxton South seat.
Another member of the expanded Reform crop at the town hall, Jonathan Close, said the party had laid on plenty of training, prior to the election, for relative political novices like himself – so that they were ready to hit the ground running should they win their seats.
He says he is hoping to focus on “local issues” and also to provide the strength in numbers that he says Cllr Topp has had to cope without over the last 12 months.
“[The council] have very much sidelined him, unfortunately – [whereas], now, we’ll hopefully get a few roles on some of the committees,” Cllr Close added.
Turnout was unusually high – by local election standards – in some parts of the borough, with eight seats seeing between 40 and 48 percent of residents make the effort to vote. Average turnout across the 14 wards was 40.1 percent.