THE CONSERVATIVES have lost seats at Solihull Council on a day of gains for the Greens and other parties.
The Tories came very close to losing overall control of the borough by losing five seats, as the local elections regionally and nationally delivered blows for the two main Westminster parties amid Brexit wrangling.
Before yesterday’s elections, the Conservatives held 31 seats, the Green Party 11, Liberal Democrats 4, independents 3, and Labour 2.
That had meant the Tories enjoyed a majority over all the others combined of 11 seats.
That overall majority has been whittled down to just one seat after today’s counting.
The Tories now have 26 of the council’s 51 seats.
The Green Party as the leading opposition party has increased its seats by three to 14 after gaining Shirley West, Shirley South and Castle Bromwich.
The Liberal Democrats gained two seats – Elmdon and Lydon; and Labour picked up the seat of Kingshurst and Fordbridge.
It leaves the Lib Dems with six seats on the council, Labour three, and there are now two independent councillors.
Councillor Alan Rebeiro stood as an independent in Knowle and won against his old party, beating the Conservative candidate Dave Pinwell by just 29 votes.
Outgoing council leader Bob Sleigh was one of eight Conservative councillors who retained their seats.
Overall turnout was 30.6 per cent.
