A councillor congratulated his opponent before the local election results had been officially counted.

Cllr Hussain Akhtar, one of the longest standing councillors in Blackburn with Darwen shared a video early this morning at around 8am, telling people he had ‘lost the election’.

Speaking in Urdu he went on to congratulate his opponent, an Independent candidate saying ‘Gaza had won’.

Lancashire Telegraph:

Mr Akhtar was Shear Brow and Corporation Park councillor and polled 2,428 votes in 2021.

In 2024, he got 740 with Muntazir Patel who once stood as a Liberal Democrat but is now part of the Independent group collecting 1,957 votes.

READ MORE: East Lancashire local elections results day 2024 - Live updates

In the message Mr Akhtar said: “I wish him (opponent) the best and like me he will go on to do the best for the ward.

“I want to say a big thank you to everyone who supported me for a long long time.

“I really appreciate every single person in my ward. This is maybe big news, maybe good news maybe sad news as I gave my all for the community.”

Speaking later to the Lancashire Telegraph he said he had been campaigning for many decades and was experienced enough to know he may not have got the votes.

Both Shear Brow and Bastwell have been staunchly Labour for many years and once the message was shared, Labour supporters appeared to realise it was not going to be their day. 

Independent candidates also stormed to victory in six other wards.