Sunderland Conservatives suffered from 'backlash against Government', says leader after disappointing election results

The leader of the Sunderland Conservatives has set out the party’s plans for the future after losing three councillors at the 2024 local elections.

As the final results of the Sunderland City Council elections were announced in the early hours of Friday, May 3, several council seats had changed hands.

This included the Labour Party gaining one seat from the Liberal Democrats, three from the Conservatives and one from Reform UK, as well as taking a vacant seat in Ryhope.

The Wearside Liberal Democrats emerged with the same number of seats they had before the election, after losing a seat in Hendon and winning in Pallion, a seat last held by a Lib Dem who defected to become an independent.

Despite defending three of their six contested seats this year, the Sunderland Conservatives saw the biggest losses on election night overall after losing councillors in Barnes, St Anne’s and St Peter’s.

Councillor Antony Mullen, Conservative Group leader, described the council results as a “tale of two halves” and stressed that councillors who lost out were “in no way to blame for the results they got”.

This included Richard Dunn in Barnes, Greg Peacock in St Anne’s and Sam Johnston in St Peter’s, who were described as being on the “receiving end of a backlash against the government”.

Cllr Mullen explained: “These were incredibly hard-working councillors who were popular in their communities. But politics is brutal and it is cyclical.

“After 14 years in government, the political Newton’s cradle has reached the extreme end of its swing away from us and these councillors were on the receiving end of a backlash against the government.

“Many voters did not want to vote Conservative in 2019, but had no choice but to do so because of the total shambles of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership which turned the Labour Party into a national security risk.

“I am particularly sad to see my ward colleague Richard lose.

“Nobody on Sunderland City Council – of any party – has done more to stand up for disabled children and I intend to continue his campaign to have a wheelchair-accessible swing installed in Barnes Park – and for this to be the city’s go-to inclusive park for every child’s right to play”.

Cllr Mullen said it was not an “improved Labour performance” that took seats from the Conservatives in three wards.

Instead, it was argued that Reform UK were to blame for “splitting the vote that enabled Labour to finish in first place”.

Cllr Mullen noted Reform UK did not win a single council seat in Sunderland and lost its only incumbent councillor in Washington South, and claimed the party had no intention to win locally.

Looking to the positives of the 2024 local elections, the Sunderland Conservatives leader praised councillor Michael Hartnack for “defying political gravity” in the Fulwell ward.

This included a 145-vote majority over the Liberal Democrat candidate in the area, despite the ward having a Lib Dem majority of 843 in 2023.

The result was seen as significant because the Liberal Democrats had already won seats from the Conservatives in previous local elections, with Cllr Hartnack “putting an end to that trend” in 2024.

Councillor Lyall Reed was also praised for increasing his majority in St Michael’s ward, along with Chris Burnicle who held the St Chad’s ward despite a “strong polling day campaign” from Labour.

Cllr Mullen said that Sunderland was also “relatively resilient to the national tide that swept aside some Conservative council groups in their entirety,” with “safe Conservative councils now in no overall control”.

Despite losing the status of official opposition following last week’s election results, Cllr Mullen said the Conservatives’ role on Sunderland City Council would not change.

“The Lib Dems may have three more councillors than we do, but we are a much more sophisticated and cerebral opposition,” he added.

It was also noted that despite Sunderland Labour’s election success, the local party had been placed in special measures by the national party.

This means Sunderland City Council’s Labour Group leadership would not be chosen by local Labour councillors, but instead, by the national party.

Cllr Mullen said: “Our role [as an opposition group] will be to remind people that Labour’s failures as a local party undermined the democratic institutions of our city council”.

Looking forward, the Sunderland Conservatives leader is eyeing seats in the 2026 ‘all-out’ elections which will be held to effectively reset the council under amended ward boundaries.

This election will see all 75 seats on the local authority up for grabs, as opposed to the 25 contested during the normal election cycle.

Cllr Mullen added: “Sunderland’s next set of elections will be fought on new boundaries and in an entirely new political context.

“We will have a Labour council and a Labour Mayor in 2026 and, if the polls are correct, a Labour government.

“If this is the case then there will be, for the first time since I got elected in 2018, nobody for Labour to point the finger at.

“The hypothetical claims that everything would be better if only Labour was in government will collide with the reality of Labour being in government at every tier: local, regional and national”.

On Wednesday, May 8, 2024, it was announced that a new Labour council leader and deputy leader are set to take over at Sunderland City Council.

Councillor Michael Mordey and councillor Kelly Chequer are expected to serve as council leader and deputy council leader respectively, replacing council leader Graeme Miller and deputy council leader Claire Rowntree.

The appointments will be formally proposed at Sunderland City Council’s annual meeting at City Hall on Wednesday, May 15.

The meeting, which involves councillors from all political parties, is scheduled to start at 6pm and will be open to the public.