LABOUR was celebrating in Durham last night after emerging as the largest group of its kind on any authority in the country.

After the votes were counted up, it was clear that the party had scored a landslide victory across the county.

Going into the election just nine seats ahead of its rivals, it ended up with a 62-seat majority.

Labour's total of 94 seats makes it the biggest Labour group on any authority in England, ahead of the combined Independents on 19, the Liberal Democrats on nine and the Conservatives on four.

Labour gained seats across the county, but party leaders were particularly overjoyed with the results in Durham City where they took six seats from the Lib Dems.

Coun Simon Henig, leader of the ruling Labour Group, said: "Throughout this campaign we have been getting a sense of the betrayal that people feel about the Government, but particularly the Lib Dems. They also feel we have been making reasonable decisions in difficult circumstances".

Lib Dem leader Coun Nigel Martin, who comfortably held onto his Nevilles Cross seat, said it was not unusual for a party in power to lose seats during a mid-term local election.

He added: "We are disappointed to have lost some very good councillors who have worked very hard for their wards over the years".

In North Yorkshire, the Conservative party retained its majority returning 45 councillors and losing just one seat.

But both UKIP and Labour made inroads into the Tory-dominated county council, largely due to independent councillors losing seats.

UKIP gained its first two seats on the authority, with its candidate David Sinister taking the Bilton and Nidd Gorge ward in Harrogate from the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Geoffrey Webber. The party’s other seat was won by Samuel Cross in Filey.

One of UKIP’s most high-profile candidates, best-selling author GP Taylor, failed to win a seat. He came second, with 468 votes, to Labour's Eric Broadbent in Scarborough's Northstead ward. Mr Broadbent took 519 votes. Labour increased its seats there from one to seven.

Stuart Parsons, a former Liberal Democrat councillor on North Yorkshire County Council, was also re-elected as an Independent councillor backing the Save the Friarage hospital campaign.