Local Elections 2024: Independents and Green Party celebrate a successful night in South Tyneside

Voters went to the polls on Thursday, May 2, to have their say on the new make up of South Tyneside Council.

The votes were counted at the Temple Park Leisure Centre, in South Shields, and in the early hours of Friday morning (May 3), it was confirmed that the Labour Party had suffered heavy losses.

Labour lost ten seats, with nine of them being gained by independent candidates.

The Green Party gained the tenth seat from Labour, as well as ousting the Conservative Party from South Tyneside Council by gaining the only seat from them.

It means that the new layout of the Council is the Labour Party with 28 seats, the Green Party with 11 seats and 15 independent candidates.

Glenn Thompson, an independent councillor, spoke on behalf of the independent candidates who were successful at the 2024 local elections.

He put the disastrous performance from Labour down to a number of key issues and revealed what the independent candidates will be targeting next.

Read more: Local elections 2024: Full list of results for South Tyneside

Cllr Thompson commented: “This year, the significant things have happened such as the Ofsted rating, which was disgraceful, and I think that has really resonated with people in South Tyneside.

“On top of that, the industrial action in the refuse department has really hurt people and how that has been managed by the Labour group is still insufficient to date.

“And then to top if off, the former Labour leader’s misappropriation of funds has got us over the line and got us into people’s front rooms.

“I’ve still got to look at the overall results for tonight but I don’t think we are far away from overall control and that will certainly be the next big target for us.”

Despite there being more Independent candidates, the Green Party still remains the second biggest political party on South Tyneside Council following the latest round of local elections.

Cllr David Francis, leader of the South Tyneside Green Party, reflected on another successful night and touched on why he thinks that more people in the borough are turning to the Green Party.

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He said: “I think it has been a really positive night for us, we’re growing in our size and influence and I’m excited to see what our new councillors can do for our areas.

“If you look at the context of this five years ago, there was one opposition Green councillor in South Tyneside and tonight, that has changed massively, but it has really changed over the last few years.

“We’ve grown from one Green councillor in 2019 to now having a group of 11.

“We’ve got several wards where we now have two or three councillors and I think that is really a testament to the work that those councillors do when they get elected - people want more of that.

“As a result, people have voted for a second and third councillor in those wards and I think it is that consistent hard work that gets rewarded.

“People like what they get when they vote Green.”

Just six years ago in 2018, the Labour Party held 53 out of 54 seats on South Tyneside Council.

Cllr Tracey Dixon, the leader of South Tyneside Council, has called on the Labour Party to “restart” in the borough as it looks to bounce back from the heavy defeat in the 2024 local elections.