Sir Ed Davey hails election success after Oxfordshire gains

The party won 36 seats after needing 35 seats to take control. 

The council was previously under no overall control. 

READ MORE: Hot weather and voter apathy blamed for low turnout at county elections

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey, who celebrated the results in Bicester, said: “We have overtaken the Conservatives at these local elections, putting us on track to overtake them at the next general election too.

“From Wiltshire to Oxfordshire, from Shropshire to Devon, the Liberal Democrats have replaced the Conservatives as the party of middle England.

“Lifelong Conservative voters have put their faith in the Liberal Democrats because they are appalled by the Conservatives lurching to the extremes and cosying up to Nigel Farage.

“Kemi Badenoch sneered at the Liberal Democrats for being the party that will fix your church roof. Today voters across the country have chosen our community politics over the Conservative Party’s neglect and disdain.”

A Liberal Democrat spokesperson added: “We have replaced the Conservatives as the party of Middle England.

“Kemi Badenoch’s party have taken a pasting at these elections in a set of results that can only been described as a humiliation.”

Kemi Badenoch has insisted that the Conservatives are still the main opposition, and that they are “holding Labour to account” on issues such as education and the economy.

Asked if the Tories can still claim to be the main challenger to Labour, Mrs Badenoch told reporters: “Yes, we are. I am the leader of the opposition.

“We have 120 MPs in Parliament. The country made the Conservative Party the opposition.”

She said that “one of the ways we’re going to rebuild trust is to make sure we do that job properly”.

She added: “We are the opposition, and we will continue to hold Labour’s feet to fire and make sure that Keir Starmer is the one-term Prime Minister.”

After a successful day for Reform UK, its leader Nigel Farage said: “We now have the most expensive energy in the world because of lunatic net zero polices that are deindustrialising Britain.

“Let’s be clear: we want to produce our own gas, our own oil, make our own steel, make our own copper wire.

“We want to reindustrialise Britain, reindustrialise the north and give men and women well-paid skilled jobs and a sense of pride in their community and what they do.

“We can’t do that from Durham County Council, but we can set the markers on how we intend to govern.

“You have cleared a very important hurdle today. And next year we’ll clear those hurdles in the Welsh and Scottish parliamentary elections and I believe, as I think you believe, we really will make history and win the next general election.”