Home of Army ends Tory control as Labour wins in Rushmoor and three other key seats

Labour celebrates Rushmoor breakthrough and says party is now trusted by voters on defence

Labour won in the home of the British Army for the first time on Thursday as it clinched four key councils in the local elections.

In a landmark result, Sir Keir Starmer’s party won Rushmoor council for the first time, ending a quarter of a century of Tory control.

It also scored significant wins in Hartlepool, Thurrock and Redditch, indicating that the Tories are haemorrhaging votes among their traditional supporters.

Rushmoor district includes Aldershot Garrison, a military town that has been considered the spiritual home of the British Army since it was built in 1854.

Labour said its victory there proved that the party has moved on since its days under Jeremy Corbyn and was now trusted by voters on defence.

The party scooped nine of the 13 seats being contested on Rushmoor Borough council, with the Tories winning three and the Liberal Democrats the other.

The Conservatives’ share in Rushmoor (38.5 per cent) was the party’s lowest since 1998, and the first time they had lost control since 2000.

Thursday night’s result will prompt alarm in Number 10, suggesting even the safest of Conservative seats will be under threat at the general election.

Labour called the win “historic” and said it “demonstrates just how much” the party has changed under Sir Keir.

“A Labour gain for Rushmoor is a result Rishi Sunak cannot ignore. It’s time for a general election,” a party spokesman said.

The result suggests the parliamentary constituency of Aldershot, which has been Tory since its creation in 1918, could be in play at the general election.

Leo Docherty, the Europe minister, is the MP and won a nearly 17,000 majority over Labour in 2019.

Aldershot is number 216 on the list of Labour target seats, requiring a 17 per cent swing, and winning it would suggest Sir Keir was on course for a landslide.

Reform UK could also play a defining role in the future of a constituency in which the UK Independence Party narrowly came third in the 2015 election.

The result in Rushmoor came on yet another dire night for the Tories, which also saw Labour romp home to victory in three other traditionally blue councils.

Sir Keir’s party clinched Hartlepool, taking back the town that had become a symbol of Boris Johnson’s Red Wall revolution.

Three years ago, the former prime minister was triumphant as he visited Hartlepool after routing Labour in a by-election to turn the seat Tory for the first time. The Conservatives scored their largest-ever swing against Labour whilst in government in a by-election at 16 per cent.

Sir Keir recently revealed that he considered resigning in the wake of the result.

In Thursday’s council elections, Labour won nine of the 12 seats up for grabs, suggesting Hartlepool will turn red again at the general election.

“Winning back Hartlepool council is a groundbreaking moment after the disappointing results we saw here in 2021,” said a party spokesman.

“Making gains here shows that the Party is on track to win a general election and is firmly back in the service of working people.”

At the opposite end of the country, Labour seized Thurrock, in Essex, in a further sign that it is on track to secure a 1997-style landslide at the next election.

The party secured its biggest jump in the east of England to take control of the council for the first time since 2013, when Brexit had begun to dominate British politics.

Thurrock had the fourth highest level of support for Leave in the country at the 2016 referendum, so taking it back represents a significant victory for Sir Keir.

The Tories won Thurrock council in 2023, but subsequently lost it to no overall control because of defections.

The area’s seat in Parliament is held by the Tory Dame Jackie Doyle-Price and has been blue since 2010, though it was Labour under Sir Tony Blair.

A Labour spokesman said: “This is exactly the kind of place we need to be winning to gain a majority in a general election. The people of Thurrock have sent the Conservatives a message that they want change.”

In signs that the Tories are facing a national rout later this year, Labour also secured a morale-boosting victory in a bellwether Midlands seat.

Sir Keir’s party took control of Redditch, near Birmingham, as the Tories suffered their heaviest losses of the night, being reduced to just a fifth of councillors.

The town’s parliamentary constituency is considered a key signpost for general election results, meaning the result is a bad omen for Mr Sunak.

Ever since the creation of the constituency in 1997, the party that has won in Redditch has gone on to secure victory in the national election overall.

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