Labour have tightened their grip on Hyndburn council, after a ‘great’ local election result.

The party held all seven of the seats they were defending in the borough council elections on May 7 and gained two previously independent seats in Clayton-le-Moors and Huncoat, bringing their overall tally to 24.

Council leader Miles Parkinson, who held his Altham seat with a 570 majority, said: “This is a great result, and it is the result of a hard fought campaign in which we listened to people.

"We heard people’s concerns and put forward the policies that the electorate wanted.

"Winning the parliamentary seat and winning council seats is down to a lot of hard work, and I want to pay tribute to those who have helped and to those who voted Labour."

The Conservative Party successfully defended their three seats in Baxenden, Immanuel and the St Oswald’s ward, leaving the group unchanged on eight councillors.

Conservative group leader Peter Britcliffe said the result in addition to the ‘disappointing’ general election turnout for Conservative candidate Kevin Horkin meant the party would have to ‘rebuild’ in Hyndburn.

He said: “It did not go as well as we hoped at a parliamentary or council level, but we are delighted that we have finished with what we had at the start. We will now look to the future and rebuild.”

The ‘runway success’ of the General Election in Hyndburn was the UK Independence Party, with their candidate Janet Brown getting an 18 per cent swing in the vote.

However UKIP struggled to transfer the parliamentary result to council level, with the party failing to gain any seats.

Councillor Paul Thompson, Hyndburn UKIP leader, said he was disappointed not to pick up the expected three council seats. He said: “I am really disappointed to be honest, we really wanted St Oswald’s, we put a lot of work in there especially.

“I am pleased we have finished second in three seats and of course the general election result was massive for us. There is definitely an appetite for UKIP in Hyndburn and we will keep campaigning.”

The Green Party finished last in each of the five seats they stood in. Kerry Gormely, who stood for the Greens in Baxenden and picked up 62 votes, said: “We have stood more candidates than ever before and I want to thank all those who have campaigned.”