Milton Keynes Council expected to stay as Labour and Lib Dem coalition

The Labour Party took one seat off he Conservatives on Milton Keynes Council

The Conservatives remain the largest party on Milton Keynes Council but a coalition between Labour and Liberal Democrats is expected to continue.

One third of the unitary council is elected each year on a three-year rotation, followed by a year without an election.

The Conservatives lost one seat to Labour, and have 23 overall, short of the 29 are needed for a majority.

Labour sit on 20 and the Liberal Democrats on 14.

An alliance between Labour and the Liberal Democrats is expected to remain following the result in Milton Keynes

The council has had no single party in overall control since 2006 and before Thursday's voting it was being run by a coalition between Labour and Liberal Democrats.

The two parties agreed to share power after last year's local election, when the Conservatives made sizeable gains.

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Labour gained the Bletchley Park ward, and the Loughton and Shenley ward, but lost the Tattenhoe ward to the Conservatives.

The Liberal Democrats gained the Campbell Park and Old Woughton ward.

Analysis: Andy Holmes, BBC Three Counties political reporter

Twelve months ago, significant gains for the Tories left them as the party with the most seats in Milton Keynes, but still playing second fiddle to a Labour/Lib Dem Alliance.

At the time Conservative optimism was high though that 2022 would finally see MK move away from 16 years of no party having overall control.

A lot of that optimism faded when Partygate filtered down to the doorsteps locally, but at the same time fears emerged amongst opposition parties that disgruntled Tory voters would just stay at home, rather than switching allegiances at the ballot boxes.

So for things to stay more or less the same for another year was to be expected, with just the odd seat changing hands. The Greens were hopeful of taking the Olney seat, with Lib Dems choosing not to stand a candidate, but in the end that didn't come to fruition.