Labour celebrate 'historic' win as it takes Medway Council from the Conservatives

Labour has taken control of Medway Council in Kent, something which has not occurred since the Tories took control in 2003.

The shock result, at the heart of the so-called blue wall, saw the Conservatives fail to meet the threshold to form a majority.

Labour now holds a majority of the 59 seats and will take control.

The previous make up of the council was:

Conservative Group: 33Labour and Co-operative Group: 20Independent Group: 2

• ITV Meridian's Joe Coshan reports from Medway where Labour have gained overall control.

The Conservative Party Chairman Greg Hands expressed disappointment about the result, but attempted to downplay the Opposition's chances at a general election.

He said: "There's areas, of course, that we're disappointed. I was in Medway during the course of the campaign.

"But equally there are areas that Labour need to win to show that they're making progress and I don't think they're making the comprehensive progress that they need to make."

Mr Hands claimed it is "not a uniformly good picture for Labour" overall, adding: "Clearly it's a disappointing time overall for the Conservatives, but I'm quite clear this is not the sort of euphoric Labour win that they got in 1995.

"The year before Tony Blair's win, Labour gained 1,661 seats, the Conservatives lost more than 1,900 seats - I don't think we're seeing anything like that from yesterday's results."

Alan Jarrett, former Leader of the Council, said he was "very disappointed".

"We knew it would be a really tough election, very tight. We knew that right from the start," he said.

"We're just disappointed that we couldn't hold on."

Former leader, Alan Jarrett told ITV Meridian he was disappointed.

The Conservatives previously had 35 councillors, but following yesterday's election now only have 22.

Labour now has 33 councillors, up 11. Independents gained 2 seats.

The win for Labour comes as Rochester and Strood's Tory MP Kelly Tolhurst said it would be a "difficult night" for her party in Medway.

She told Sky News: "I've been out campaigning for weeks on the doors, speaking to my constituents across the patch and yes, absolutely, there has been some dissatisfaction with the government and people have been frustrated."

But there were also local concerns about "unrealistic housing targets" and the Government's levelling-up agenda, which was seen as focused on the northern England "Red Wall" rather than the south east.