THE Conservatives have now become the largest party at Bolton Council for the first time in 40 years as three more Labour councillors leave the party.

Despite holding the same number of seats as they did when Labour were last in control, the Conservatives, who have been running the council since May 2019, now have the highest number of councillors in Bolton with 19 in total.

The three Crompton councillors who quit Labour last Friday follow in the footsteps of three others who split since 2018 – although they are associated with opposing factions in the group which has been riddled with in-fighting.

This comes after a series of election losses for Labour, mostly to new hyper-local independent parties, which together with the six resignations, leaves the group which had 37 councillors just four years with only 18 council seats now.

Cllr Nick Peel, who was elected Labour leader just three weeks ago, said he is “very much aware” that he has inherited a lot of “legacy issues” in the group.

He said: “The resignations of five councillors, which includes three friends, in the last few months have been for a variety of different complex reasons, but the upshot now is that the group is united.

“No one has ever cited Labour Party policy as a reason for leaving, and that is important to remember, as we do have a serious electoral programme to put to the people.

“We are on 18 now, which is two lower than our lowest point of 20 in 2004. We bounced back after that low point and we will do so again.

“However I’m under no illusion about the task Labour faces, and our starting point remains – admitting we got some things wrong and accepting that its our fault alone that people have lost trust in us.

“Only when we face these issues honestly, will we be able to again confidently offer the people of Bolton a better future than Tory coalition austerity, which is all that they are being offered by every other pseudo-independent party.”

A poll by Bolton Elects at the end of May predicts Labour would regain its position as largest party by the tightest margins if an election took place now.

But with local elections postponed until May 2021, all of this could change.

Lib Dem leader Roger Hayes said that the recent resignations shows Labour is “incapable” of running Bolton effectively and shows his group was right to “prop up” the Conservatives with their votes in a deal with smaller parties.

But he warned that with the rise of so many smaller parties popping up across the borough, it may prove difficult to all reach an agreement in the future.

He said: “The Conservatives have become the largest party, not because of their own efforts, but because of problems in Labour.

“In football it is rather like winning a match because the opposition has scored six own goals.”

Bolton Elects predicts that the Lib Dems would win both Westhoughton wards at an election but lose a councillor in Breightmet which the Tories would gain.

However, the Tories would lose a seat in Astley Bridge to the Lib Dems by a narrow margin, according to the poll, as well as losing its only councillor in Kearsley, Cllr Mark Cunningham, who joined after leaving UKIP this year.

Labour would beat UKIP in Little Lever and Darcy Lever in another tight contest, leaving the group with just one councillor – its leader Sean Hornby.

He said: “The landscape of politics in Bolton has been changing ever since Labour started losing seats to UKIP in Little Lever and further seats in Farnworth then Kearsley then Horwich and Blackrod.

“Whilst the Conservatives may be the largest party on the council they cannot govern without the support of other minority parties – something they are well aware of.

“The Labour Group, if they want to ever take back control of the council, have to take a good look at themselves and start asking why did they lose control of the council and how do they reconnect with the people of Bolton.

“The local elections next May could give some surprises at the ballot box and I think Labours losses may continue for some time.”

Council leader David Greenhalgh wished the new Labour leader well and promised to include the newly-independent Crompton councillors in the democratic process by offering one a vice-chair role on a scrutiny committee.

He said: “Not only have large numbers of the electorate turned their back on Bolton Labour, but now it would appear their own elected councillors are doing so as well, five in as many months.

“To quote from a very famous play, ‘to lose one councillor may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose five looks like carelessness’.”