Alex Clarkson, Conservative parliamentary candidate for Stevenage, has said that his party are "down but not out" after a chastening set of results in the local elections.
He made the comments after his party were reduced to just a single seat on the council, down from nine. Cllr Phil Bibby, their sole remaining councillor, was not at today's count.
Labour gained all eight seats that the Conservatives lost, with council leader Cllr Richard Henry describing it as an "absolutely amazing" set of results.
The main Opposition party will now be the Liberal Democrats, who retained all six of the seats they already held. It is the first time since 2008 that they have been in that position - with Cllr Robin Parker their group leader both then and now.
He told the Comet that his party "relish the prospect" of being the Opposition again.
For Mr Clarkson, however, it was "not the best of days".
He said that his "big takeaway ... is the loss of fantastic Conservative councillors that have worked extremely hard across the town".
Margaret Notley, Bret Facey, Adam Mitchell and Alex Farquharson were among those to lose their seats.
Mr Clarkson said they were "great losses, great community councillors" who had helped in "holding Labour to account".
He paid tribute especially to Margaret Notley - who was first elected in 1992 and has twice served as mayor of Stevenage - and her "amazing career".
Mr Clarkson added that "we can't forget her civic duty ... Labour towns don't give out Conservative mayoralties willy-nilly, but both of those civic years were triumphs".
He also thanked, in particular, those Conservative candidates who had stood for the first time at this election.
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Mr Clarkson put their defeats down, in large part, to people voting for Reform UK: "If you vote Reform here in Stevenage, you will get Labour, and you will lose decent servants of the town."
He found it "particularly galling" to lose votes to Reform in Woodfield ward, where the Reform UK candidate, Amodio Amato, had been dropped by the party for alleged offensive remarks on social media only after nominations for the election had closed. It meant that his name remained on the ballot papers given to voters.
But Mr Clarkson said that his party is "on the right track" and believes their plan "is cutting through - inflation is down, wages are up, we are turning a corner with the economy, the Rwanda plan is starting to work".
Speaking about the impact of Tory losses on their position in the council, he said that he is sure Cllr Bibby will "be on many committees and will fully engage with both the council and, indeed, with the Liberal Democrats".
"What I'm quite passionate about is when you have, as you have for 50 years, a council that has been nothing but Labour, it's important civically let alone politically to have some sort of opposition.
"I'm hoping that the Conservative will work with other Opposition councillors to provide some sort of check and balance within that council chamber."
He concluded: "Lots of people will ask us 'is there despondency?', or 'is everyone hanging their heads down?' but no - I'm looking around and, actually, Conservatives are down, but we're not out, and it's not game over, it's game on."
In contrast, it was a "brilliant" day for Labour, said council leader Richard Henry.
He put their victory down to having "a progressive council", to "14 years of Tory misrule" and "for the first time, a lot of people who are lifelong Tories switching their vote to Labour".
"People want change, and it's evident from the results we've got here.
"If you look at the candidates who are now Labour councillors, we've got a much more diverse, much younger [cohort], a lot of strong women coming through - I've got a really talented group of 32 councillors to take forward the Labour message in Stevenage and beyond."
Kevin Bonavia, Labour's parliamentary candidate for Stevenage, said he was "really proud" that Labour was the only party to stand three candidates in every ward.
"We campaigned in every ward to show that every resident matters in Stevenage.
"We won't take their trust for granted. From now on, we will fight for every vote in the general election that's to come.
"People are ready for change, we now need to show them that there's going to be real change for them with Labour."
He added that he now wants the council to have "a Labour government behind them to make sure they've got full support - and hopefully a Labour MP that's going to speak up for Stevenage in parliament and beyond".
Mr Bonavia also said he wanted to "pay tribute to Margaret [Notley] for her service ... politics can be brutal [and] my heart goes out to people when that happens to them".
"I hope that Margaret's successors will do voters in Woodfield and the rest of Stevenage proud."
Cllr Parker, meanwhile, said that the group of six Liberal Democrat councillors will "redouble" their efforts "to provide a fair, active and thoughtful opposition" to the Labour majority.
"It's not new to us, we relish the prospect of being the opposition, we'd like to be the majority group but that's not going to happen this year!
"We've been pleased to have been put back into what for many years was our rightful place as the second biggest party in Stevenage.
"All my colleagues held their seats handsomely.
"We always try to make progress elsewhere. We have gone up in various wards, and we'll continue to try to improve on that situation."
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