No majority in Swindon but Tories largest party

No party has control of Swindon Borough Council after all-out elections in the town, but the Conservatives are now the largest party.

To get a majority, a party needed 29 seats. The Conservatives now have 23, Labour, who were in control, have 19, Reform have 14 and the Liberal Democrats have one.

Vinay Manro, Conservative chair in Swindon, said the party had "bucked the trend" nationally and would sit down next week to see how it could run a minority council.

"[I'm] a little bit surprised, I must be honest," said Conservative group leader Gary Sumner, adding that he would not work with Reform, a view shared by Labour leader Jim Robbins.

A situation like this often involves a party working with another one to ensure it is clear who is in control.

"We're going to have to work with other parties, but not Reform," said Sumner.

"If we have to work with the Labour party to get budgets across the line, we will do that.

"We've worked with them, I expect a bit of reciprocation," he added.

Labour won the council in 2023 from the Conservatives.

It has been a busy election count as Swindon usually only does a third of its seats at a time, but has done them all-in-one go for this election.

For a town that has traditionally voted the way the country has, Swindon voters have bucked their own trend this time around.

This was a big act of democracy in the town, an all out election, with more choice than ever before for voters. And they took it - with a higher than average turnout of 43.7%.

Reform UK were confident they were the party that inspired people to get out and vote, and the reality is they'll be disappointed they didn't do enough to win the council, or potentially, have any say.

Conservative leader Gary Sumner is clear, they will not work with Reform's 14 new councillors to form a coalition.

So now the talking starts, will these surprised, but delighted, Conservatives fight to run a minority council, or start having conversations about working more closely with Labour - now officially the second biggest party in town.

For Labour, who say after winning the council in 2023, they were just getting going, this feels like a blow. They just didn't realise it would be the Conservatives who would be back in the driving seat.

Manro said the Conservatives had a target of 20 seats, so were pleased to go above that.

He put the success down to the party campaigning heavily on local issues, rather than national, adding: "We're listening to residents and we want to do the best for Swindon."

He said they would be having conversations about how to go forward.

"We'll sit down next week and see how we can run a minority council," said the chair.

Follow BBC Wiltshire on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630.