The North East’s political map has a very different look about it this week, writes Local Democracy Reporter, Daniel Holland.
2026 may well come to be remembered as the year that the shape of our region’s politics, for so long dominated by a sea of red, changed beyond recognition.
12 months ago, a political earthquake struck County Durham when Reform UK romped to a landslide victory through what was once a Labour heartland.
But that was merely a first taste of the ballot box pain voters have inflicted on Sir Keir Starmer’s party.
In the early days of this local election campaign in March, Nigel Farage stepped onto a stage in Houghton-le-Spring and declared the May 7 polls a referendum on the ailing Prime Minister and his Labour Government.
That is a view that many furious Labour MPs and now ex-councillors have been espousing in recent days, too.
As the results rolled in across Tyne and Wear on Friday, it quickly became clear that they would paint a brutal picture for Sir Keir and for the Labour establishment that has been the controlling force in our region for decades.
Four councils run by Labour in Tyne and Wear slipped rapidly from their grasp – in Newcastle, Sunderland, Gateshead, and South Tyneside.
And they were only spared the same embarrassment in North Tyneside because only a third of the council seats there were being contested and the size of Labour’s existing majority made it mathematically impossible for them to lose power.
To put the scale of those losses into historical context, consider that Labour had enjoyed an unbroken reign in power in Sunderland and Gateshead ever since the councils were established in the 1970s – and similarly in South Tyneside for all but a brief period of no overall control from 1978 to 1979.
At the general election of 2024, which must feel like a lifetime ago for many who celebrated that day, every constituency in Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, and County Durham returned a Labour MP.
Less than two years later, the party lost 166 council seats across the five Tyne and Wear boroughs in a single, devastating day. It was nothing short of utter humiliation.
The big winners were clearly Reform UK, who won 171 seats here and cemented themselves as the North East’s dominant political party at a local level.
Reform now runs Gateshead, Sunderland and South Tyneside, as well as Durham.
A Green surge in Newcastle was also key to Labour’s downfall there, as their jump in the polls under Zack Polanski delivered big results in their main target area in the North East.
That is a serious power shift away from the North East’s status quo and one that, right now, it is hard to imagine being easily reversed over the next few election cycles.
So what comes next? Reform’s 12 months in charge in Durham have not exactly been short of controversy – over issues including the scrapping of the county’s climate emergency declaration and cuts to council tax support for the poorest households.
Mr Farage and other senior Reform figures have been keen to highlight Durham as an exemplar of what it wants to achieve in power, particularly pushing the fact that it has imposed a lower council tax rise than most other councils.
What will this new political landscape mean for our Labour mayor, Kim McGuinness? Her North East Combined Authority cabinet has presented a largely united front since her election in 2024, but she and North Tyneside’s Karen Clark are now the only Labour faces around that table of eight.
With half of her cabinet set to be made up of Reform council leaders, will they feel sufficiently emboldened to derail her agenda?
And who will run Newcastle? No party achieved or even came close to winning a majority in the city and there remains significant uncertainty over whether any kind of stable coalition could be formed.
Whatever happens, it is clear that it is no longer business as usual in North East politics. And you can bet it won’t be quiet, either.
Daniel Holland
Reporter for the Local Democracy Reporter Service.
South West Durham News covering news across County Durham.
