UKIP gain nine to become opposition party

UKIP gained nine seats to become Rotherham’s new opposition party on a sorry local elections night for the ruling Labour group.

Deputy council leader Jahangir Akhtar, planning board chairman Dave Pickering and Cabinet member Richard Russell all lost to the rising anti-Europe party.

Ukip also stole seats in Dinnington, Hellaby, Keppel, Silverwood, Sitwell and Wingfield with Caven Vines holding Rawmarsh.

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Cabinet member Gerald Smith held Holderness for Labour, polling 1,064 votes to scrape a majority of just three.

Labour lost seven seats while the Conservatives failed to keep Hellaby or Sitwell from falling into Ukip control.

Ukip’s Kath Reeder, who won in Valley, said: “For us, it’s all about what the community wants. Labour’s got to learn.”

Council leader Roger Stone said: “I see this as a protest vote. But there’s not a lot the new Ukip councillors can actually do on the national issues they campaign about.

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“We have no control over immigration or whether the country stays in Europe.”

The council now is now made up of 50 Labour members, ten Ukip, two Tories and one independent. The European votes will be counted on Sunday.

 

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