Labour has won back Dover District Council for the first time in 20 years.

The party won the 17 seats needed to gain overall control of the authority in yesterday’s district election.

The Conseratives’ majority tumbled down from 20 to 14 seats and the 32nd place was won by an independent candidate.

Labour group chief Kevin Mills is expected to be the future leader of Dover District Council once he is voted through at the authority's next annual meeting on May 17.

Cllr Mills told KentOnline: "We never took anything for granted but we were quietly confident.

"We did a lot of work on the doorstep and listened to people. Now we want to deliver."

Cllr Mills was first elected as a district councillor in 1991 and was Dover mayor from 1993 to1995.

Tory leader Trevor Bartlett was not fired from the council by the electorate like his counterparts in Folkestone, Thanet and Canterbury as he kept his seat.

But the voters had demoted him as leader.

He told KentOnline: "Labour did very well and it's not what I wanted but that's politics for you.

"We did a lot for people in the community but the voters didn't support us this time.

"We just could not hold overall control of the council.”

Until now Labour had just 10 seats on the council.

Another was occupied by an independent and the last seat was vacant in the Labour stronghold of St Radigund’s, which it won back

Labour ate away at the Tories’ majority by taking their seats, for example at North Deal, Mill Hill and Maxton and Elms Vale, plus Middle Deal where veteran Conservative Trevor Bond was ousted.

Independent Mark Moorhouse took another seat from the Tories in their usual stronghold of Sandwich.

He became the first non-Conservative councillor in that ward since Labour won nearly three-quarters of the seats in the 1995 district election when New Labour under Tony Blair was on the rise but not yet in power.

Mr Moorhouse, 58, has lived in Sandwich for all but two years of his life and attended what is now Sandwich Technical School.

He is now a purchasing manager for an electronics company and had been a Conservative from 1990 until 2016 when Brexit was voted through in a referendum, which he was against

He said: “Our team put in a lot of footwork, I personally walked more than 30 miles in one day delivering leafletis and asking people to go out and vote.

“I feel a lot of people out there are disillusioned with party politics and I think that was part of the secret of this success, standing as an independent.”

Mike Tapp, Labour prospective parliamentry candidate for Dover, said: “The people of Dover and Deal are absolutely fed up with the Conservatives after 13 years of failure, in immigration, the cost of living and having to wait far too long to see a GP.

“They’ve sent a very firm message that they want Labour in Dover and Deal. Next stop the general election.”

Dover MP Natalie Elphicke commented: “The outgoing Conservative council had an excellent local record of delivery for our area over many years.

“While we did better in Dover than elsewhere in Kent, given the national backdrop it was never going to be enough. From the doorstep it was clear that voters were sending a strong message to the Government to do better rather than a positive endorsement of Labour.”