Tory hopes of booting Labour out of Leek have failed as the election results look much the same as 2017.

Seven Staffordshire County Council seats were up for grabs in the borough, with the Conservatives holding onto their six, while Labour kept their only seat.

Leek South veteran councillor and ex-MP Charlotte Atkins had the last laugh after Tory claims the seat would be "neck and neck".

Cllr Atkins dropped just 72 votes on her 2017 performance, earning 2,132 this time around. The Conservative result was similar too, with candidate Jo Cox dropping just 52 on the party's previous run at the seat.

Last time around four candidates ran in the seat, this time the Green Party did not put up a runner and Liberal Democrat Roy Gregg pulled in 172 votes, 10 less than his predecessor. The Green's previously earned 155 votes in 2017.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Cllr Atkins said: "It's been an excellent result for me and suggestions from the Conservatives that it was neck and neck were clearly ill judged. I certainly found that when I was going round on the doorstep, delivering leaflets, not knocking on doors, we had a very warm response and I think that is built on years of fighting for my community and delivering on the challenges I have faced."

Cllr Atkins had held the seat since 2013.

Conservative Cllr Keith Flunder for Biddulph South and Endon reacted to Cllr Atkins victory after increasing his majority by 556 votes on 2017.

He said: "It was similar to last time, there wasn't much change percentage-wise or anything like that. But it was hard fought, we give Jo as much credit as we can. We all helped a bit here and there. We'll see what happens next time around, but obviously Charlotte has got a lot of history and is well represented.

"But the other six results have done well and I have increased my vote by around 500 votes so that's rather quite good.

"I'm not sure [if we will win Leek South next time]. I think a lot of it depends on what will happen between then and now. I think in two-year's time it's going to be an interesting set of local elections, I think we'll know more then. It's hard to predict what might happen here but things haven't changed that much at all."

Elsewhere, Tory Gill Heath of Leek Rural's majority shrank slightly by around 150 votes as the Green and Independent votes grew and the Labour vote shrank by over 100 votes.

Cllr Heath has served as a county councillor since 1997 and says this term will be her last.

The 75-year-old said: "I shall still do my best for everybody but I think I shall be a bit old if I still am here in four years. I've still got a young mind and I've got grandchildren, they keep me going."

Other standout results included Cheadle and Checkley, where former UKIP candidate Peter Wilkinson made gains of nearly 250 votes in standing as an independent, chippping away at incumbent Tory Mark Deaville's majority by 41 votes. No Liberal candidate stood in the seat this time around, Labour's result was smaller by around 50 votes and the Green's saw a big jump from 71 votes to 187.

The results of the Cheadle North East and Cheadle South East by-elections where two Independent incumbents had stood down became Tory gains with former councillor Stephen Ellis regaining a Staffordshire Moorlands District Council seat in Cheadle North East after losing his in 2019. He previously represented Cheadle West.

He said: "I'm absolutely thrilled to be back for Cheadle. I was devastated in 2019 to have lost my seat after everything we had done. The last two years have been particularly difficult with the master plan, there's a lot of things we need to do there. We've got a lot of work to do in Cheadle and that work starts now."

And Peter Jackson, who wasn't present at the count, won in Cheadle South East with 359 votes, Labour's Liz Haines was the nearest challenger out of all six runners with 206 votes.

The result leaves the Tories one seat short of a majority on the district council.

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