Labour loses Worthing Council majority

Labour has lost its overall majority on Worthing Borough Council after a sharply divided set of local election results which saw major gains for both the Green Party and Reform UK.

With all 13 seats declared, Labour won just one of the borough council contests held in 2026, down eight compared with the previous set of equivalent results. The Green Party won six seats, Reform UK won five and the Liberal Democrats won one. No Conservative candidate was elected in the 13 Worthing Borough Council contests declared.

The result leaves no party with an overall majority on the council. Labour remains the largest group overall, with 15 councillors, but is short of the number needed to control the authority outright. The Green Party now has eight councillors, the Conservatives have six, Reform UK has five, independents and others have two, and the Liberal Democrats have one.

The result marks a significant change in Worthing’s recent political direction. Labour had won the previous Worthing council results in 2022, 2023 and 2024, following a Conservative result in 2021. The 2026 result breaks that recent Labour run and leaves the borough council under no overall control.

The election was marked by gains at opposite ends of the political spectrum. The Greens took Broadwater, Central, Gaisford, Goring, Heene and Selden, gaining seats from Labour, the Conservatives, Reform UK and an independent. Reform UK won Castle, Durrington, Northbrook, Offington and Salvington, taking seats from Labour and the Conservatives while also holding Durrington.

Labour’s only win in the listed borough results came in Marine, where Martin McCabe held the seat with 1,295 votes. The Liberal Democrats gained Tarring from Labour, with Hazel Thorpe winning 887 votes.

Several contests were close, underlining how finely balanced parts of the town have become. In Gaisford, Green candidate Claire Lydia Hatfield won with 1,000 votes, just 34 ahead of Labour’s Dale Overton on 966. In Offington, Reform UK’s Jeremy Leonard Berrett Carter won with 1,134 votes, 68 ahead of Conservative candidate Nigel James Morgan on 1,066.

Tarring was also tightly fought. Liberal Democrat Hazel Thorpe won with 887 votes, ahead of Reform UK’s Catherine Davies on 786 and Labour and Co-operative candidate Rita Valerie Gladys Garner on 783. That left just three votes between second and third place, and 104 votes between first and third.

The Conservative result was also severe. The party won none of the 13 borough seats contested this year, losing ground to both Reform UK and the Greens. Despite that, the Conservatives still hold six seats overall on the council because only part of the authority was up for election.

The results suggest that Worthing’s electorate has fragmented rather than moved in one clear direction. The Greens made strong progress in several central, coastal and eastern wards, while Reform UK made major gains in Castle, Northbrook, Offington and Salvington and held Durrington.

The new council lineup means Labour will need support from other councillors to pass decisions and maintain control of council business. The Green Party and Reform UK have both emerged strengthened, while the Conservatives and Labour have both lost ground in a more divided borough political landscape.

The full Worthing results and candidate vote tables are available here: Local Election 2026 results