LABOUR doubled their seats on Worthing Borough Council to ten today, bucking national trends.

Despite the party having no representation on the council two years ago, candidates stole five seats from the governing Conservatives to knock the Tory majority down to seven.

Eleven of the council’s 37 seats were up for grabs today.

Now the Conservatives are down to 22.

As Labour challenger Dawn Smith beat Tory Nigel Morgan to win the Broadwater seat, the Labour contingent screamed in celebration – and not for the final time.

Arguably the biggest victory of the night was in Gaisford ward, where experienced Conservative councillor Bryan Turner was beaten by Labour’s Henna Chowdhury, now the first female Muslim councillor to serve in Worthing.

Labour’s Carl Walker remarkably stole Selden from Alex Harman, swinging to a 400-vote majority.

Labour leader Beccy Cooper called the result “extraordinary” and said she wanted to pressure the Conservatives to make more affordable housing.

She said: “Nationally the elections haven’t gone so well so for Labour Worthing to do so well is extraordinary.

“Two years ago there was only one of me and now we have ten councillors. I don’t think we could have campaigned any harder.

“We have got our first meeting on Sunday so we’re gearing up to get to work. We do want to look at town centre regeneration. A lot of people are feeling unsafe about it, especially with recent events, but we want to revitalise it and make it a hub.”

Conservative council leader Daniel Humphreys said he was disappointed at losing five seats and blamed the result on national politics.

He said: “We have had a Tory Government for nine years so of course we expected to lose seats, but with the current political situation you would expect Labour to do much better.

“We have been punished for our Brexit policy nationally rather than on local issues because I’m sure people know that our council has worked its hardest.”

Liberal Democrat leader Bob Smytherman was “delighted” with the result in Tarring ward, which saw Martin McCabe win a seat back for the party to bring them to three seats.

He said: “Tarring is rightly back in Lib Dem hands. Our hard work has paid off and I am delighted.”

Conservatives: 22 seats

Labour: 10 seats

Lib Dems: 3 seats

Independent; 1 seat

Ukip: 1 seat