DURHAM COUNTY COUNCIL ELECTION RESULTS 2025

Green wins in Brandon but Green candidates miss out in Lower Teesdale
All council seats in the neighbouring local authority of County Durham were
contested on Thursday 1 May. There were no elections for Darlington Borough
Council which had elections two years ago.
The Green Party successfully retained a seat and gained an additional seat in the
Brandon division. Our Regional Fieldworker, Jonathan Elmer, was first elected there
in 2021. He will now work alongside his wife Priscilla who secured 900 votes to
defeat the incumbent independent councillor, Paul Taylor.
Jonathan said: “I’m absolutely delighted. It’s been a really tough campaign, and we
have had to work extremely hard to visit people across our division to understand
what people’s priorities are.”
Despite a very impressive campaign in Lower Teesdale, with considerable support
from Darlington members and volunteers, our candidates were unsuccessful. Sarah
Hannan polled an impressive 726 votes but was beaten by the by the Reform UK
candidates. While this is a disappointing result for Sarah and for all those who
supported her campaign, she was convincingly ahead of the Conservative and
Labour candidates.
This places the Green Party as the main contender against Reform at the next
election or in any by-election that might occur in the next four years.
The successful Reform UK candidates had done very little direct campaigning,
having relied on centrally funded and expensive direct mailings. Neither of the two
candidates live in the division. One was also elected as a Parish Councillor in
Lynesack and the other as a Town Councillor in Bishop Auckland, which suggests
they’ll be splitting their time between two areas.
Our second candidate, Marc Cole, was a late entrant only featuring after much of the
campaign material had already gone out. This is reflected in the result, where he
polled more than the Labour candidates but lagged behind the Conservatives.
Sarah said “I have really enjoyed the campaign because I have met so many like-
minded people, the chats around my dining table have been interesting, informed
and always friendly.” She is now committed to building the membership and
increasing the number of volunteers in time for 2029 when the seats will be
contested again.
Nationally the Party continues to grow. Co-leader Carla Denyer said “the Green
Party has broken new records by increasing our number of councillors for the eighth
year running. While Labour and the Conservatives have buckled under the Reform
insurgency, Greens just keep growing.
“We have taken seats off the Tories and Labour and have shown we can be the
positive and progressive antidote to Reform, holding their vote back in some places
while breaking through onto other councils where Reform dominated.”

Lower Teesdale Results