Labour holds North Tyneside in full council election

The ward of St Mary's saw the highest turnout with Andy Holdsworth the first Labour councillor ever to win a seat there

Labour has strengthened its grip on power on North Tyneside Council, taking 51 of the authority's 60 seats.

Bucking the national trend, the Conservatives claimed an extra seat and now have eight.

This year, the full council was elected because of borough-wide boundary changes with all wards redrawn and most renamed.

Andy Holdsworth, who took one of three seats in the St Mary's ward and was the first Labour councillor to do so, said: "If it wouldn't kill me, I'd do a cartwheel."

Boundary-wide changes mean all the wards have been redrawn and most renamed

The ward saw the largest turnout at 52% with its three seats taken by Mr Holdsworth, Ian McAlpine for the Conservatives and Judith Wallace as an independent.

Mr Holdsworth said he was "absolutely overwhelmed".

"It is a split ward, there are a lot of different opinions and there’s a strange mix but we’ll have to make it work," he said.

North Tyneside Mayor Dame Norma Redfearn described the results as "amazing".

She said: "I never would have dreamed it possible we would have got a seat on St Mary’s ward.

"But it just shows you residents aren’t silly and they know who is working hard for them."