The 2010 Barrow-in-Furness Borough Council election took place on 6 May 2010 to elect members of Barrow-in-Furness Borough Council in Cumbria, England. One third of the council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control.[1]
After the election, the composition of the council was:
The 2010 election was the last where only a third of the council was contested.[3] This meant 12 seats were up for election, with only Barrow Island ward not having an election.[3] From the 2011 election Barrow-in-Furness moved to having full council elections every 4 years.[3]
Before the election the Conservative party had 16 councillors, compared to 8 for Labour, 7 independents, 4 Socialist People's Party and 1 Liberal Democrat.[3] However, in the lead up to election independent councillor John Millar joined the Conservatives and defended Dalton South as a Conservative in the election.[3]
The Conservatives hoped to win a majority on the council, defending their record as the council administration by pointing to a list of achievements and saying they had kept council tax levels low.[3] However Labour were only defending 2 seats and attacked the Conservative record, while calling for more council apprenticeships and the return of a scheme of lower bus fares for pensioners.[3]
The results saw Labour gain 8 seats to double the number of councillors the party held on the council to 16.[4] The gains came at the expense of all the other groups on the council, with only the Conservatives holding 2 seats in Hawcoat and Roosecote.[4]
Following the election the Conservative leader of the council, Jack Richardson, was re-elected and Conservative Rory McClure became mayor.[2] This came after all 5 independents backed the Conservatives in the vote and the 2 Socialist Peoples Party councillors abstained.[2]