The Liberal Democrats are celebrating a significant increase in councillors at County Hall and the re-election of this area's Lib Dem MEP Andrew Duff.

The County Council group went from 8 councillors to 12, taking seats from both the Conservatives and Labour to become the official opposition at County Hall.

The Greens failed to gain a single County Councillor in Essex, although the intervention of Green candidates did allow a number of Conservative County Councillors to be re-elected. The Greens also failed to gain an MEP in the East of England.

Lib Dem group leader Tom Smith-Hughes, said: “We are delighted with our performance in these elections which has come off the back of well run local campaigning. We have some very able councillors who have been doing outstanding work in their local areas and this was reflected in the results. Our group is now the official opposition at Essex County Council and we take our role of holding the Conservative administration to account very seriously. We will press for them to get the basics right.

“It has been an astonishing result for the Labour group who have been virtually extinguished – left with a single councillor. Clearly Labour is finished here in Essex. The shambles that is the Labour government was no doubt a factor in the way people voted this time, although the Labour presence has been in steady decline at county hall for over a decade.”

Full details of the election results can be found here and here.