Copeland council election count: Results are in

Labour's third candidate in the ward, Andi Rutherford did not win a seat.

But the Labour Party did take all three seats in Egremont, with Tom Higgins, Mike McVeigh and Sam Pollen all being elected.

Turnout across the borough was 32.7 per cent.

One of the day’s biggest surprises has been that long-serving Conservative councillor Alistair Norwood has lost his Hillcrest seat.

The three to represent the ward are Labour's Allan Forster and Conservative duo Brian O'Kane and Russell Studholme.

In the Whitehaven Central ward, prominent businesswoman Carla Arrighi, who jumped from being an independent to Conservative during her last term of office has lost out, with the ward going to Labour pair Eileen Weir and Sean Cullen. And to independent Charles Maudling, who retains his seat.

In Cleator Moor, the second of the unsuccessful mayoral candidates, Labour's Linda Jones-Bulman has retained her seat, alongside veteran Labour councillors Hugh Branney and Joan Hully.

Ged McGrath, who lost out in his bid to be mayor last night, hung on to his renamed seat in the Black Combe and Scafell ward along with his fellow Conservative Party candidate Doug Wilson, receiving 677 and 622 votes respectively.

The Conservative Party have three council sets in the Millom ward, with all three of the party's candidates - James Date, Fred Gleaves and Felicity Wilson winning.

It was a narrow victory for the Labour Party in the Moresby ward, with the party's candidate Reginald Minshaw receiving 271 votes, just ahead of the Conservative Party's Martin Barber with 256 votes.

More comfortable was Jeanette Forster's victory, elected as the Labour Party candidate for the Sneckyeat ward with a strong majority of 377 out of the 528 votes cast.

Also a comfortable victory for the Labour Party was the result for the Corkickle ward, with Gemma Dinsdale receiving 328 votes to the Conservative candidate Andrew Wonnacott's 216 votes.

Gosforth and Seascale was uncontested as there were two candidates for the two seats and Conservatives David Moore and Andy Pratt were elected unopposed.

And the Arlecdon and Ennerdale ward has been won by Labour's Gwynneth Everett and the independent candidate Steven Morgan.

The Conservative Party was emphatically victorious in the St Bees ward, with candidate Jeffrey Hailes winning 404 of the 667 votes cast.

And Labour's Graham Calvin has also been comfortably elected in Moor Row and Bigrigg.

But in a much more narrow victory, Labour's candidate John Kane secured the Kells ward seat by just 21 votes.

Independent candidate Christopher Hayes received 209 votes, just losing out on the Kells council seat, with John Kane receving 230 votes.

Brigid Whiteside, the Conservative candidate came a distant third with 32 votes.

Earlier this morning, it was declared that the Labour Party secured both seats in the Distington, Lowca and Parton ward in this morning's Copeland election count.
Dave Banks and Jackie Bowman defeated Conservative candidates Daniel Glover and Elaine Haraldsen by a comfortable margin.
The two Labour candidates took 830 of the 1,433 votes cast in the ward, to 555 received by the Conservatives.
The announcement came shortly after a surprise result, that one of Copeland's longest-serving councillors has lost her seat at this morning's count.
Yvonne Clarkson, standing for the Beckermet ward, has been a councillor for 34 years.
But the longstanding Conservative Party councillor lost her seat to independent Sam Meteer in one of the first results to be announced today.
Today's count comes after the results of the mayoral vote announced several hours ago, in which incumbent independent Mike Starkie was re-elected with a boost to his majority.
Ahead of the count beginning, Copeland's Conservative leader David Moore predicted both his party and Labour would suffer a hit in today's count as a result of the ongoing Brexit deadlock.
"I think both the main parties have suffered because of what's happening in London.
"This has been reflected in the low turnout - there's apathy there, people just weren't interested in going to vote.
"They don't trust politicians full stop now, and that's quite sad. We wanted to talk about local services, and the voters want to talk about what's happening in Westminster."
Results will be declared ward by ward throughout the morning, with announcements expected to continue into the afternoon.

Labour's Graham Calvin, the party's Copeland campaign coordinator for yesterday's election today won his first election as a candidate, in the Moor Row and Bigrigg ward.

He said "It's been great getting out there, meeting people and hearing their views.

"I've always said that as a party, we need to get back amongst the community where our core vote is.

"You can only lead people to where they want to be led.

"But the political atmosphere at the moment is not easy for any party.

"As parties, we all need to work together to get unity back, in order to gain people's respect again."

He referenced the frustration felt among many local political campaigners that the ongoing Brexit issue has obstructed debate on more local issues.

"We can't effect much change nationally, but we can affect what goes on locally.

"My principal concern is Copeland, and I want to work with other parties and other councillors to try and make life better in the borough.

“I think a united front, and getting back out into the community is vital for winning back the trust of the voters.

“We must address people’s issues, and get people’s confidence back.

“We need to talk to people, attend to everything from the biggest issues like Moorside down to the smallest issues like street lighting.

“I’ve been fairly outspoken on Moorside. There’s never been a power station across the world built without government backing.

“We’ve got to try and persuade this government to put their money where their mouth is and get behind projects like Moorside.

“We don’t need rhetoric, we need financial backing.”

Independent Charles Maudling was returned to Copeland council today for the ward of Whitehaven central, alongside Labour’s Sean Cullen and Eileen Weir.

He believed he had benefitted somewhat from the Brexit-related unhappiness towards both main parties, but also that – like mayor Mike Starkie, the voters had recognised someone who was passionate about the area.

“My motto was ‘for the people’, he said.

“I want to work for the betterment of the community, which is what local politics should be about, not national politics. Unfortunately it’s been like that for too long round here.

“I’m a full supporter of our mayor, I think he’s presided over a great transformation in the borough.

“Mike Starkie and his team has done a brilliant job of turning the finances around. I’ve never seen such a good team in charge before.”

“I think we’ve really benefitted from taking some of the party politics out of Copeland, and I want to see more of that. I want to see everyone elected regardless of party working for Copeland.”

Mr Maudling said a number of challenges had to be addressed by the newly-formed council along with the returning mayor.

“We’ve got to get Copeland recognised. The Lake District extends into two thirds of our borough, but nobody comes this way.

“I want to see Copeland put on the map.

“But we’re moving in the right direction.

“The St Bees heritage coast, the new developments in Whitehaven, the coal mine bringing 500 jobs, there is a feel good factor in the town.”

Member of Parliament for Copeland Trudy Harrison acknowledged the frustration felt by voters over Brexit, but felt her Conservative Party had not suffered the extreme losses today seen in some parts of the country.

“We’ve held pretty much what we’ve had in Copeland, in terms of Conservative councillors,” she said.

“I think the public are understandably fed up of MPs in Parliament not getting Brexit over the line. Not leaving the EU as expected. And yes, we’re paying the price for that.

“I do hope this will send a strong message to number 10 and the cabinet the country wants to leave the European Union and the government need to get on with it.

“But I think I have had the most committed team of Conservative candidates that Copeland has ever known, and I know they want to do what they can to make the borough a better place, whether they won today or not.”

Labour's Linda Jones-Bulman expressed her sadness at the disillusionment in politics clearly felt by the voters in Copeland.
Also standing as the Labour Party's Copeland mayoral candidate, Mrs Jones-Bulman received just over a quarter of yesterday's votes, with incumbent Mike Starkie securing a second term after winning more than half of the votes.
"The way politics is going now, people are sick to death of Brexit, politicians in general. It's very difficult to stand, true to yourself under a party banner that you believe in so strongly, because people have lost so much faith in all parties.
"People are losing trust in Westminster, and at a local level we carry the can."

The Conservative Party's mayoral candidate in yesterday's election, Ged McGrath, agreed that the major theme of today's election was frustration, saying that "all through the campaign one of the things you learned on the doorstep was the frustration of the electorate."
"This borough voted to leave by 69 per cent. People are frustrated," added Mr McGrath, who is also standing for the council seat of Black Combe and Scafell.
"People are frustrated with the whole system. There is a huge protest vote today.
"The number of spoiled papers we’re seeing demonstrates that plenty of people went to the ballot box just to spoil their papers."