Warwickshire elections 2013: Conservatives lose control

The Conservatives have lost overall control of Warwickshire County Council with the Tory leader losing his seat to the Greens.

Alan Farnell received 748 votes, behind Keith Kondakor's 1,032 votes in the Weddington seat in Nuneaton.

Mr Kondakor, a borough councillor for the past year, said the result was "still sinking in".

Labour have gained 10 seats, taking their total to 22. The Conservatives had 38 but now hold only 26.

Mr Farnell said he had lost his seat because "that's democracy, and you can't knock democracy".

He said that one day he might "fight again".

Two Green seats

The Liberal Democrats lost two of their 11 seats.

The Conservatives now hold 26 seats, Labour have 22, the Lib Dems have nine, the Greens have two and there are three independents.

The deputy Conservative leader of Warwickshire Council, Bob Stevens, held his seat in Feldon with 1,335 votes.

The Green party took the Labour seat of Leamington Brunswick, with Jonathan Chilvers receiving 1,156 votes.

These are the first Green Party seats for Warwickshire Council.

On winning his poll, Mr Kondakor said: "There are all sorts of challenges, particularly with the cuts to the county council.

'Inter-party talks'

"The austerity has been dreadful. The county council faces a whole load of dreadful decisions based upon the government continuously cutting the budget to the county council."

Referring to the changes in Weddington, Marcus Jones, Conservative MP for Nuneaton, said: "I think it wasn't totally unexpected.

"I think we expected we were going to have a very difficult time and that's turned out to be the case."

Nadim Zahawi, Stratford's Conservative MP, said it was "disappointing" the council leader had been unseated but added "we will fight on".

Councillor June Tandy, Labour group leader, said she could "categorically rule out any formal coalition" between Labour and any other group but said it was "obvious" there would be inter-party talks.