Ex-Tory councillor Andy Morgan, who had served the Hulton ward for 12 years, lost his seat to UKIP candidate Diane Parkinson after a tense night of vote-counting at the Bolton Arena.

Left Unity is a party ‘with feminism, socialism and environmentalism at its heart’ and was formed to oppose capitalism by cleaner Janet Phillips.

Distrust, disappointment and a lack of accountability are the reasons behind Salford’s low turnout according to candidates

Leigh’s Member of Parliament was speaking at Trafford’s election count today

Standish Independent candidate Debbie Fairhurst swept to victory and will work alongside her spouse Gareth Fairhurst.

Also holding a seat in the Standish and Langley ward is Gareth’s father George Fairhurst.

Labour control 23 of 25 seats

The evening at Rochdale Town Hall seemed tense at first, with people excitedly awaiting the results after counting began at 10.20pm

UKIP gave Labour a scare across many of Bolton’s hotly-contested seats – placing a second 12 times.

However Labour retained control with 40 seats, Tories 15, Lib Dems three and finally UKIP’s two.

With elections round the corner, UKIP candidates took to Twitter to explain why they have the edge over other parties – but the #WhyImVotingUkip was quickly pounced on by opposition supporters

With local elections taking taking place on Thursday, MM took to the streets to ask if people knew and whether they would be voting

A controversial UK Independence Party (UKIP) poster has been vandalised in Salford by branding party leader Nigel Farage a ‘lying motherfucker’.