Metropolitan Borough of St Helens - Governance

Governance

On 17 May 2006, following local elections held on 4 May, the political control of the Council changed from the Labour Party to a coalition formed by the Liberal Democrats and the Conservative Party. Labour had been in power since 1 April 1974 following the first elections to the shadow council in 1973.

After local elections in 2008 St Helens was a hung council with no party having overall control, as a result The Liberal Democrats and the Conservative coalition continued their governance of the council. Labour were the largest party represented followed by the Liberal Democrats and then the Conservatives.

After local elections in 2010 the Labour Party retook overall control of St Helens council with a majority of 8 after increasing its tally by 5 at the expense of the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives. This brought to an end the Lib/Con coalition which had governed the council since 2006. Labour continue to be the largest party represented followed by the Liberal Democrats and then the Conservatives.

Following the United Kingdom local elections, 2011, in which one third of the seats in St Helens Council were up for election, Labour increased their majority by 7, as a result of the collapse of the Liberal Democrat vote, with them losing all but one of the seats they were defending while the Conservatives also lost one seat to Labour.

Following the 2012 local elections, Labour further increased its majority on 2011 with another 5 seats awarded to them. The Liberal Democrats lost 4 seats, and the Conservative Party 1. On the night of the results, there was a scuffle between Liberal Democrat Cllr Brian Spencer who had lost his seat, and Labour candidate Mark Johnson, in which police had to break up the fight and made following investigations into an assault on Mark Johnson.