04:53

A Labour councillor in Bury, north Manchester, has blamed Ken Livingstone for two Labour colleagues losing their seats in a heavily Jewish populated ward, writes our North of England editor, Helen Pidd.



Alan Quinn told the Manchester Evening News his party had lost two “hard-working and proud” councillors in Prestwich because of a “backlash against the Labour party”.



He said: “It’s down to one person, and that’s Ken Livingstone. He has caused grotesque offence to the Jewish population in Prestwich with his absolutely awful comments. Our councillors put their hearts and souls into representing the area and there really is no place in the Labour party for bigots like Ken Livingstone.”

Yet despite these losses, Labour kept control of Bury. Labour also became the biggest party in Stockport, deposing the Liberal Democrat leader, Sue Derbyshire, but not winning enough seats to gain overall control.

Elsewhere in the north of England, Labour has so far kept control of all of its councils, including Rochdale, Hartlepool, Carlisle, Sunderland, Newcastle, Liverpool, Hull, Halton, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral. In Liverpool, the city’s first directly elected mayor, Joe Anderson, won again for Labour with more than 50% of the vote. Labour also retained the parliamentary seat of Sheffield Brightside in a byelection.

But Labour lost seats to the Liberal Democrats in Hull and Rochdale. Ukip had a good night in Hartlepool, winning two more seats to take their total to five.