THE Labour party have taken back control of Southampton City Council after just one year out of power.

The incredibly-tight contest saw the Conservatives lose control of the authority just 12 months after gaining a majority.

It comes after several polls pointed towards a Labour victory in the city before counting even began.

At the start of the evening, the make-up of the council was 18 Conservative and 13 Labour, with a total of 17 seats up for grabs.

Now, there are 26 Labour councillors, 21 Conservatives and one Liberal Democrat.

Read more: Southampton City Council elections - how the night unfolded

Cllr Daniel Fitzhenry, who before tonight was the leader of the council, said the party had done "everything we could locally".

But the new leader of the council, Labour's Satvir Kaur told the Echo the Conservative administration was "just as out of touch as the Conservative government". 

Cllr Kaur added: "It is so humbling that Labour has been trusted again by Southampton to lead our city.

"We’ve had an incredible night and we’ve got some amazing local candidates that are now elected as councillors. 

"In Southampton, Labour had a really strong campaign, we had a new vision for Southampton and I’m so pleased that Southampton residents felt as though they could back us and we hope to deliver for Southampton people.

"But also I think this election was really clearly also linked with the national picture and we spoke to so many people on their doorsteps who said that they were so keen to send a message to this Conservative government and hopefully, this does."

The result sees the Conservative party lose four seats in total with Labour gaining four, whilst the Lib Dems won their first seat on the city council for almost ten years. 

The result also saw former Cabinet Member, Steven Galton lose his seat on the council in Millbrook. 

Cllr Fitzhenry added: "[It's] disappointing that we’re not running the council after what I think has been a great year of Conservative-run council.

"We clearly had a couple of results that were pretty difficult that we weren’t expecting, but actually in three wards in the West of the city, one we lost very narrowly and two we looked again and we came behind very narrowly, less than 100. So from that point of view, if this is our low mark, then ultimately we’re in good shape still."

Read more: Full list of results for Southampton City Council

Asked about the reason behind tonight's result, Cllr Fitzhenry said: "Clearly different people have a view on the Prime Minister, some very much like him, some don’t and perhaps that’s reflected, I don’t really know. But there is a cost of living challenge going on right now.

"We’ve come out of a pandemic, and there are a number of difficult issues the country needs to grapple with and naturally people feeling a level of uncertainty, and are unsure. But as a Conservative group, running the council I believe we did the best job we could to deliver for people, keep costs low, and hopefully will be back in a year’s time to crack on with the job."

Labour gained seats in Bitterne Park, Millbrook, Peartree and Shirley. 

Meanwhile the Lib Dems gained their seat in Bassett. 

Cllr Kaur continued: "I have an amazing, bigger team now and we’re raring to go. Thank you so much to everybody that put their trust in Labour.

"We are keen to deliver for you, build community pride, make our city safer, greener and more affordable for everybody. Southampton has always been one of those seats that has swung in roundabouts.

"There are projects that we have done with the Conservatives. I started off City of Culture and I’m so pleased that the Conservatives continued that and there will continue to be projects where we will work in partnership for the best of the city.

"I do think they need to reflect on this and learn some serious lessons both locally and nationally."

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