High Peak Conservatives have selected a full set of 43 candidates for 43 Council seat vacancies, for the upcoming local elections on 2nd May.

This is the first time any political party has successfully fielded a full slate of candidates in the history of the borough.

In the upcoming Borough Council elections, there are 43 council seat vacancies spread across 28 wards.

While High Peak Conservatives successfully fielded a full slate of candidates. It was a very different story for the other parties.

The Liberal Democrats have only managed to table 22 candidates, even fewer than the Green Party who are contesting 26 candidates. UKIP are fielding only 4 candidates.

However, the biggest surprise was with the Labour Party who are only contesting 37 out of the 43 seats, failing to put up any candidates in the Hope Valley. The number of Labour candidates has fallen from 41 candidates in the last Borough elections back in 2015.

The number of candidates a political party are able to stand is typically seen as a sign of the strength of their local organisation.

Tony Ashton, Conservative Leader of the Council said:

“It’s encouraging that we’ve got so many candidates who’ve put themselves forward for these really important local elections.

“This election isn’t about national politics but local services such as bin collections, street cleaning and housing. I’m proud of our record running the Council over the last 4 years and look forward to the campaign.”