Bradford Council 2026 election live blog

10.30pm: A bleak day for Labour, a cracking day for Reform ...

... a surprisingly thunderous performance by Reform UK, a surprisingly triumphant one for the Tories, a good turnout for the Greens and a forgettable one for the Lib Dems.

And though the counting for Bradford Council hasn't finished, it has nevertheless been a historic day. In terms of numbers, the day has ended with:

• 🔵 Reform UK on 23
• 🔵 Conservatives on 18
• 🔴 Labour on 12
• 🟢 Greens on 7
• ⚪️ Independents on 2
• ⚪️ Your Bradford Independents 1
• 🟠 Liberal Democrats 0

Remember, we still have more seats to be declared, but for some context, the composition before the election was:

• 🔴 Labour: 47
• 🔵 Conservative and Queensbury Independent: 14
• 🟢 Green Party: 10
• ⚪️ The Bradford Independent Group: 9
• 🟠 Liberal Democrat: 5
• ⚪️ Independents: 5

We'll save the analysis for now. It's late and although we've managed to finally get some grub down us, we're spent. So, that's a wrap from us. We hope you have found this live blog useful if not a little entertaining.

We certainly have. Time for a whisky.

8.45pm: We're now entering the twilight zone

We've been at the election count since early doors. And it has wound down considerably. It's been a very long day and we feel like we're in a bit of a daze.

When you're in the thick of it, it's hard to keep up or even full absorb the seismic changes that have so far taken place. At the time of writing, Reform UK have won 23 seats, followed by the Conservatives with 15, Labour with 11, the Greens with 7, independents with one and the Liberal Democrats with zero on Bradford Council.

8.08pm: The Journal's home patch, Ilkley, turns all blue again

You can see this result as something of a surprise or business as usual. For the former, the Greens have been rising in popularity and Ros Brown's 2024 win was not only historic but suggestive that change, perhaps, was afoot in this diehard Tory town.

Today, however, suggests otherwise, even though the Greens showed strong numbers, especially if you consider the votes that the Conservatives would have lost to Reform.

Elsewhere, it was business as usual for Worth Valley, again returning three Conservative councillors to Bradford Council ...

7pm: Like buses – you wait ages for one and then loads come at once

It has been a bit of a whirlwind. Lots going on, as you can see. The biggest story, however, is that Susan Hinchcliffe, Labour leader of Bradford Council, has lost her seat for Windhill & Wrose (along with Alex Ross-Shaw and Liz Rowe). Hinchcliffe's loss will be a huge blow to Bradford Labour.

5.42pm: City results are in

Same again for Labour: three seats, with the party clawing one of them back from an independent. Again, this was another safe ward for the party but in as politically fragmented a landscape as the one we seemingly currently have, it's not so easy to call anymore.

Nationally the Welsh Labour leader, Eluned Morgan, has lost her seat – Labour need to "go back to being the party of the working class" she said – and Reform UK have taken control of Sunderland, which had been Labour led for over half a century.

5.05pm: Bowling and Barkerend results are in

Labour have arrived with three seats secured for Bowling and Barkerend. While a Labour stronghold, the party will no doubt be relieved to have made a clean sweep (and in fact regained one seat that when independent in 2024) with plenty of formerly dependable seats across the country being snapped up by other parties.

4.45pm: Queensbury results are in

And another ward falls to Reform. This time for Queensbury. At the last election it had two Labour councillors and one independent (a former Conservative candidate). It's not an altogether surprising result.

In previous years the ward has show strong support for the Conservatives and in 2011, 2010, 2007 and 2006 voters elected BNP candidates. UKIP have also performed relatively well here in the 2010s.

4.16pm: Wyke results are in

Reform UK have bagged their first seats on Bradford Council, taking all three seats for Wyke. All three councillors were previously Labour. Reform UK had previously come in third place at the last election in 2024, with 13.6% of the vote (the British Democrats got 7.1% of the vote) and second last place in 2023, this time behind the British Democrats.

Though Labour has pretty much dominated the ward for years – except for 2021, when the Conservatives got voted in – Wyke has previously shown support for right-wing and far-right parties like UKIP, the British Democrats and the BNP.

3.33pm: Holme Wood and Bierley results are in

And it's a full house for the Greens. Matt Edwards, the current leader of the Greens on Bradford Council, along with Celia Hickson and Iain McInnes, have been elected for Holme Wood and Bierley.

This is a new ward. It was formerly the Tong ward, which has turned Green since 2021. It was a Labour stronghold before that, with UKIP and the BNP attracting support in the 2010s and noughties respectively.

2.10pm: smell a fix

Social media, for all its faults, offers us a fascinating insight into what people really think and feel, often from the perceived safety of digital detachment from our physical selves and the vacuous charm of being noticed online by a glut of strangers.

Below is a few of the responses to Bradford Council's Facebook post announcing that the count process for the 2026 Bradford District local elections has begun:

• Reform voters wont even understand what voting reform will do to the economy of uk lol
• hope you have cctv for the count
• There’s no way Labour have won an if they have it’s definitely a fix, x
• Been up all nite rubbing out the reform crosses no doubt
• Let the rigging begin
• Those who voted for REFORM.. I hope you can afford health insurance like what they have in The USA the very reason why i will never vote never ever for REFORM. for the sake of our NHS.. where i have worked for over 50 years & still do sometimes..voting for them is our worst nightmare please God don’t allow it to happen for the sake of our working class and the poor.. they are not what they say they are…wake up peeps before it is too late…Wedon’t want what is happening in America here in UK…
• Bradford councils a joke
• 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

1.20pm: 10 years on, Brexit voters back Reform UK

Wharfedale and Bingley West have finished verification stage. Keighley Central and Worth Valley have also completed, as has Shipley. Windhill and Wrose, Bingley East and Baildon have started the next stage.

We've just chatted briefly with Susan Hinchcliffe, the current leader of Bradford Council. She's said she'll be up for speaking to us later but that may change depending on how the results in her ward go.

Elsewhere, writing for the BBC, John Curtis, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, has said that "for the time being at least, electoral politics in Britain has become highly fragmented".

Reform UK have so far done well in Brexit-backing parts of England, he says, which goes to show how short voters' memories are – and glutton for punishment. Farage was one of the most prominent campaigners for leaving the EU, which has left Britain far worse off than it would have been had we stayed in.

"We estimate that by the start of 2025, the UK economy was approximately 8% smaller than it would have been without Brexit, based on macro data, and 6% smaller using firm-level micro data," the authors of a 2025 paper by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research noted.

"Investment is estimated to have been 12-18% lower, employment 3-4% lower and productivity also 3-4% lower than it would have been if the UK had not voted to the leave the EU."

12.35pm: Friday treats

Keighley East, Keighley West and Airedale have completed the first stage of count, as have Baildon and Bingley East.

While we wait for a further update, let's talk about snacks. They're all a bit naughty.

On offer are four varieties of Seabrook crisps (a local brand founded in 1945). There's cheese and onion (yellow), beefy (brown), sea salt (red) and sea salt and vinegar (blue). Read into that what you will.

The confectionery options include classics like Twix, KitKat, Mars and Fruit Pastels, while the pop selection features Pepsi Max, 7Up Zero, Fanta Orange Zero and Fanta Lemon Zero. It's a valiant attempt at sugar control.

There's tea and coffee, of course.

11.45am: "It's looking grim"

It's looking grim out there, says one Conservative candidate. He's sat with some of his fellow party members, as well as some candidates from Reform UK. It's all very chummy – kindred folk and all that.

A group of Labour candidates are sat huddled in the corner. They're not up for talking yet. Anna Dixon, the Labour MP for Shipley, has turned up and joined them.

Nationally, the PM, Keir Starmer, has said that he's "not going to be walking away and plunge the country into chaos", Nigel Farage, leader of Reform Uk, has said that the results so far demonstrate a "truly historic shift", Zach Polanski, leader of the Green Party, has said that "all over the UK people are voting to end Rip Off Britain", Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Conservatives, has said that she can "see those signs of renewal everywhere that we are standing" and Ed Davey, leader of the Lib Dems, has said that he's "feeling very bullish" about upcoming counts.

10.50am: "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail" – yeah, right, Benjamin Franklin

We have finally arrived and sat down in front of a small, circular table better suited to hosting pints of lager than a laptop, but there you. We've kicked our first cup of tea at the leisure centre, which looks like it belongs to a bygone era.

As some of you eagle-eyed readers will have noticed, we sent out this blog a tad early last night. The small price you pay for trying to get organised (and working way later than we should be).

The media room is right next to the hall that the count is taking place in and should be a good spot to chat to candidates and eavesdrop on conversations.

Spotted Alex-Ross Shaw. Taller than we thought he'd be. Some Have seen a fair few Reform UK candidates who are, unsurprisingly, in good mood. At the time of writing Reform UK have so far picked up 400 seats, the Greens up by 22 and Labour down by 259 and the Conservatives racking up 171 so far.

Hello!

Welcome to our live blog. We’re going to be at the leisure centre in Keighley later this morning, one of two places where the election counts for Bradford Council are taking place in. The other is Sedbergh Sports and Leisure Centre in Bradford.

At the moment, Bradford Council is led by the Labour party, which has had a majority since 2014. Prior to that, no party had been able to muster enough support to avoid a “no overall majority” since 1999.

During that time, the council's leadership has been split between the two historically dominant parties of British politics (whether that’s true for the rest of the 2020s remains to be seen).

The Conservatives ran a minority administration for a decade between 2000 and 2010, followed by a Labour-run council until 2014 when it secured enough seats to kick off what has been 14 years at the helm of the local authority. Labour had last had a majority 15 years prior, which, in turn, it had held since 1990.

Prior to that, there was no overall control for two years (from 1988), with Labour in charge again in 1987, 1986 and 1980. The Conservatives were in control between 1973 and 1979.

This year, as with elsewhere in the country, it’s expected that Labour will lose its majority (46 seats at present) – and by a hefty amount, too. One poll has Labour down to 13 seats, which would be unprecedented.

The Conservatives, still considerably diminished as a party locally and nationally, are also expected to see their numbers dwindle across the district (they currently have 14 seats, including one Queensbury independent).

Reform UK, the Greens and the independents are expected to be the primary beneficiaries of a frustrated electorate that has both grown tired of the duopoly and lacked the steadfast tribal loyalty of partisan politics that defined much of the 20th century. The Lib Dems are likely to remain relatively unchanged.

To find out what will actually happen as it unfolds, tap on the link below. We’re going to be reporting on the results live and trying to make sense of it, as well as getting reactions and commentary from candidates and party members in between. We’ll also cover the story that's emerging nationally.

If you don’t see any updates, just refresh your browser. That should fix it. Updates to start coming in from around 10am-ish.