Votes for grabs in messy Blackburn with Darwen election

Reform UK and the Green Party are for the first time fielding a candidate in every seat, threatening the old Labour/Conservative order of politics in the borough from both right and left.

Or, rather, what is left of it after the polls two years ago, which saw a huge surge in votes for the Independent rebels who quit Labour over its stance on the Israel/Hamas conflict.

The current opposition 4BwD group is standing candidates around the district, with a fair smattering of Independents also appearing on ballot sheets on May 7.

4BwD became the official opposition group of the council in 2024 with 12 councillors, while the Conservatives were reduced to just nine, having lost two.

With Reform and the Greens circling around them, the Lancashire Telegraph understands that Labour and 4BwD held exploratory talks about an electoral pact not to oppose each other in a bid to reduce their rivals’ threat.

Those talks came to nothing, but Labour is still only fielding 14 candidates.

MORE: Full candidate list for Lancashire local elections 2026

The party is not opposing its former councillor Elaine Whittingham in Ewood, after she quit for personal reasons, and is not fighting in council leader Cllr Phil Riley’s Roe Lee seat.

He said it could not find a hopeful to join him on the authority, and the party has decided not to contest Blackburn South and Lower Darwen as, having complained bitterly about 4BwD’s Saj Ali taking the Roe Lee ward from Mayor-designate Sylvia Liddle in 2024, it would have been hypocritical to then threaten Conservative Jacqui Slater’s final weeks as the borough’s First Citizen.

But the Labour boss hopes that with some of the heat over the government’s stance on Gaza and the Middle East having waned, there will be no repeat of May 2024’s poll disaster, which was followed by Independent Adnan Hussain taking the Blackburn Parliamentary constituency from Labour by 132 votes two months later.

Cllr Riley said: “We think we are going to do better than we feared at one point.”

Conservative group leader Cllr John Slater expects to keep his party’s three seats in Darwen, with Blackburn Association chair Julian Arnold confident it can regain its 2024 losses in that town.

Suleman Khonat, standing for 4BwD in Shear Brow and Corporation Park ward, is confident that he and Roe Lee’s Saj Ali will hold on, and that with six other candidates, they could increase their representation on the council significantly.

Reform UK’s Blackburn chair Tommy Temperley – standing in Roe Lee – is confident his party will do well with six seats in its sights – his own, Livesey with Pleasington, Mill Hill and Moorgate, Ewood, Blackburn South East, and Little Harwood and Whitebirk.

The party also has hopes for Wensley Fold, while Lancashire County Council’s health boss Daniel Matchett is seeking a highly unusual local government double by adding Blackburn South and Lower Darwen to his existing Whitworth and Bacup seat on the neighbouring authority.

The Green Party – buoyed by its recent success in the Rossendale by-election for Hareholme and Waterfoot ward ahead of Reform – is also confident of gains in Blackburn with Darwen.

It’s co-chair, Labib Ebrahim, said: "Every elector in the borough will now be able to vote for a greener, fairer approach to local government and not stay wedded to the same old grey choices.

"We are now fielding three more candidates than the Labour Party, with representation from right across our different communities!"

But just to add spice to an election campaign bubbling up nicely, there are a few extra rivalries which might throw a spanner in the works.

They will include angry Independent Derek Hardman, who after 25 years was ditched by the Tories in favour of association vice-chair and former Brexit Party candidate Rick Moore.

He is running against Mr Moore, but will this just split the Conservative vote, allowing someone else in?

Will former Labour councillor Tasleem Fazal hold Billinge and Beardwood for his new 4BwD group, with two other Independents in the race?

Meanwhile, can Altaf 'Tiger' Patel’s wife Fajila pull off a shock win in Labour’s Bastwell and Daisyfield as a non-4BwD Independent, and can Tiger himself get re-elected?

There are also two Liberal Democrats and a Workers Party candidate in the field in Bastwell to add variety for the voter.

With Labour having 27 councillors out of 51 before the campaign started, it is unlikely they will lose control of the borough, but those talks with 4BwD might be back on if it has another election disaster.

 Full list of Blackburn with Darwen local election 2026 candidates 

Audley & Queen’s Park

Aadil Chopdat – Independent; Zain Ghulam – Independent; Yusuf Jan‑Virmani – Independent; Tristan Marrow – Conservative; Michael Nickson – Green; Ehsan Raja – Labour; Catherine Richards – Reform UK.

Bastwell & Daisyfield

Parwaiz Akhtar – Labour; Shakeel Choudhry – Independent; Matthew Khan‑Dyer – Green; Reece Macaulay – Conservative; Fajila Patel – Independent; Maurice David Robinson – Reform UK.

Billinge & Beardwood

Imtiaz Ali – Conservative; Aimee Louise Dewse – Green; Shabbir Dudhara – Labour; Tasleem Fazal – Independent; Danny Wilson – Reform UK.

Blackburn Central

Isaac John Cowans – Reform UK; Simon Pearce Huggill – Liberal Democrat; Zamir Khan – Labour; Keith Murray – Conservative; Aliraza Tariq – Independent; Saul Whittle – Green.

Blackburn South & Lower Darwen

Daniel Matchett – Reform UK; Jacquie Slater – Conservative; Hazel Marie Walsh – Green.

Blackburn South East

Ahmed Abdelrahman – Green; Henry Arnold – Conservative; Andy Mahon – Reform UK; Jim Shorrock – Labour.

Darwen East

Yasmin Monique Gabrielle Connell – Green; Christine Dawson – Reform UK; Martin McCaughran – Labour; Ryan Slater – Conservative.

Darwen South

Kevin Connor – Conservative; Bradley Langford – Reform UK; Denise Veronica Morgan – Green; Sue Skipper – Labour.

Darwen West

Janine Crook – Reform UK; Steve Duncan – Conservative; Eleanor Jean Hill – Green; David Smith – Labour and Co‑operative Party; Ian Charles Thomas – Liberal Democrat.

Ewood

Les Cade – Conservative; John Alan Clayton – Reform UK; Willem Evans – Green; Elaine Whittingham – Independent.

Little Harwood & Whitebirk

John Black – Reform UK; Haroon Khan – Independent; Salim Lorgat – Labour; Emma Macaulay – Conservative; James Paul Schofield – Green.

Livesey with Pleasington

Paul Anthony Florentine – Green; Derek James Hardman – Independent; Oscar Marshall – Labour; Rick Moore – Conservative; Helen A R Voegt – Reform UK.

Mill Hill & Moorgate

Charlotte Audrey Bradley – Green; Tillie Delaney – Conservative Party Candidate Stephen James Hartley – Reform UK; Donna Marie Talbot – Labour.

Roe Lee

Sajid Ali – Independent; Sarah Morrison – Conservative; Mudassir Shaheen – Workers Party; Liyakat Sidat – Independent; Tommy Temperley – Reform UK; Hassan Ul‑Haq – Green.

Shear Brow & Corporation Park

Hussain Akhtar – Labour; Adrian Hoole – Conservative; Suleman Khonat – Independent; Christopher John Powell – Reform UK; Alex Wareing – Green.

Wensley Fold

Mags Marrow – Conservative; Tahyub Naser – Labour; Altaf Patel – Independent; Maulana Siddiq Patel – Independent; Safvan Patel – Independent; Jordan Andrew Sands – Reform UK; Jane Wareing – Green.

West Pennine

Simon Charlesworth – Green; Angela Crane – Reform UK; Jude David Rowley – Labour; Julie Slater – Conservative.

 The local elections take place on Thursday, May 7.