Local Election 2023: Portsmouth councillors react to results

The Conservatives suffered a significant defeat in the Portsmouth City Council elections, leaving the Lib Dems as the largest group but still lacking an overall majority.

The national trend of the Tories being punished continued in the city with five of the six seats it was defending being lost.

Most of these defeats were at the hands of a surging Portsmouth Independents' Party which doubled its total number of councillors to six, leaving it at a similar standing to both the Conservatives and Labour.

The Lib Dem group now has more than twice the number of councillors of any group with 18 but still fell short of securing a majority.

Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson, the group's leader and the leader of the city council, said the result was a '"mandate from the people of Portsmouth" for the work the council is doing in the city.

Labour's leader on the city council, Councillor Charlotte Gerada, said it had been a "positive" campaign and said the result reflected a "collapse" in the Tory vote with people flocking to support Labour.

Reflecting on the defeat, Councillor Simon Bosher, the leader of the city council's Conservative group, said he hoped the parliamentary Conservative Party "reflected on and learned from" the loss.

"We've lost a number of very talented councillors because of their mess," he said. "We will dust ourselves down and go again but ultimately we were punished for what's happening nationally - not our track record in Portsmouth."

Reporters: Josh Wright & Peter Henley

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