Preston local elections 2026: parties reveal plans now city council is in no overall control
No single party can now run Preston City Council without the support of others.
Labour has lost its sole grip on power at Preston City Council after the authority slipped into no overall control following the local elections.
The party remains the largest at the town hall, but it no longer enjoys the outright majority it has held for 15 years.
Reform now has five seats – up from just one prior to Thursday’s vote – while the Green Party has gained their first two ever In the city.
The Liberal Democrats remain the official opposition, but failed in their aim to snatch control from Labour.
The outcome of the elections means the council will be hung for the final two years of its existence.
Ruling Labour group leader Matthew Brown said he was hoping to be able to rely on “some support” from the three independents on the authority – two of whom quit Labour last year, while another was last week suspended by the party pending an investigation into a matter which has not been made public.
Meanwhile, the Greens have ruled out even a loose coalition arrangement with Labour, telling the Post that their decisions would be weighed purely in the interest of their residents.
The Lib Dems described the result as “bittersweet”, while Reform UK’s expected group leader said he was concerned with scrutinising Labour should it continue to govern – especially if any kind of arrangement did end up being made with the Green Party.
Asked by the Lancashire Post whether he wanted to stay as council leader following the outcome of the election, Cllr Brown said, “That’s the idea,” adding:
“I do want to see this through. I’ve started something I believe in passionately, especially tackling inequalities and trying to change things here for the better.”
He said he believed it was “the national situation people have voted against”.
“I think people are not voting against us here because of [local policies like] free swimming or exempting terminally ill residents from paying council tax.”
Liberal Democrat opposition group leader John Potter said he was proud that his party had gone “toe-to-toe” with Reform and that “barring a couple of dozen votes we would have won two extra seats”.
However, he acknowledged that the actual outcome meant his party was not in any more powerful position than prior to the election, because he believed Labour would “turn to the Greens” for help enacting its policy priorities.
However, Preston Green Party chair Avery Greatorex said that while her two new councillors may be seen as playing a “kingmaker” role, that was not what they were interested in doing.
Ruling out a coalition-style ‘confidence and supply’ arrangement, she told the Post: “We’re here to represent residents, we’re not going to go into any kind of agreement like that.
“It also means that the administration…will have to collaborate with us if they want different things. I think it means a wider perspective of views will be seen across the city rather than a Labour majority just voting through the Labour line.”
Meanwhile, Reform UK councillor Stephen Thompson – who has gone from being a lone voice on the authority to be part of a group of five, with two more members than the Conservative group he was once a part of now has – said any kind of Labour agreement with the Greens would be “interesting”.
“I’m sure I’ll find holes to pick in that particular version of the administration,” he said.
“[My] priority is to hold Labour to account – or whoever’s in charge. We’ll certainly be looking at what we’ve said on our leaflets – we’ll be looking at sensible financial spending and at what we can do to make the cost of living better for people.”
The electoral maths of the result were complicated by the fact that gains or losses are based on a comparison with the last time the tranche of 16 seats that were contested were all up for election together, which was in 2022, as part of an ‘all-out’ vote for the entire council that year after boundary changes.
However, by-elections and defections since then have seen seats change hands resulting in several of the gains, especially for the Lib Dems, being purely technical ones on paper.