The Workers Party polled over twenty four thousands votes across the country in the May 2026 local elections (plus more than 4,000 in Scotland) giving us five wins and meaning we now have EIGHT councillors in total, but the biggest win came right at the end as we defeated Labour Council leader John Cotton.

When counting finished across the country on Friday, the Workers Party team and our colleagues from the ICA remained in the Utilita Arena in Birmingham as Council representatives completed a second recount of the vote. Earlier that day, when faced with the ballot papers, Labour Council leader John Cotton had retreated from the Count and declared that he had lost. What nobody knew, was that the Workers Party candidate had been declared the winner. In fact, Shehryar Kiyani our candidate, was declared the winner THREE times on Friday. But at 10.30pm, after the third concluding result, the Presiding Officer declared we'd all have to come back on Monday for a full recount. No further explanation was forthcoming, he just didn't like the result.

Back we came on Monday, and it wasn't long before our Rochdale councillor Farooq Ahmad was finding Workers Party ballots in the reject pile. In response the council discovered seven new ballots, these had been missed at the Friday count, missed at each subsequent recount, and then discovered after the weekend. With more than a dozen Workers Party volunteers and our allies from the ICA watching closeley, the counting continued and just before 8pm on Monday the unpalatable truth could be avoided no longer, it was impossible to find any more votes... and we had our first councillor in Britain's second city.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVvLxpupGjI