LABOUR bucked the national trend in the Blackburn with Darwen elections to cling on to control of the council.

Labour now only has a majority of two, as the far-right England First Party (EFP) gained two seats for the first time.

Blackburn MP and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the result in the borough had flown in the face of predictions from pundits that Labour might lose control.

He said: "In the circumstances it's good news here for the Labour Party.

"It's sad that we lost some seats but given the national trends and our difficulties in the last few weeks the Labour Party has done very well here."

Ahead of the election Liberal Democrat leader Coun Paul Browne had predicted that Labour would be swept out of power, but his bold claim did not materialise and his party gained just two seats.

Overall Labour gained two seats one from the Tories and one from the Lib Dems but also lost three to the Liberals and another to the EFP.

Labour now has 33 councillors, the Conservatives 15, the Liberal Democrats 13, the England First Party has two, and there is one independent.

The Conservatives were the only party of the main three to not gain any seats.

They they lost two one to Labour and another to the EFP.

Council and labour group leader Coun Kate Hollern said she was pleased to still be in power but not particularly happy about losing four councillors.

In Audley she lost Tahir Mahmood, in Bastwell Iftakhar Hussain fell, Ron O'Keefe lost his Meadowhead seat, and Michael Johnson who was beaten in in Shear Brow where had been a councillor for 14 years.

The BNP's Blackburn leader Nick Holt said his party had made "great in-roads" by coming second in five of the seven seats it contested.

But he admitted that he didn't understand why his party had not got one seat while his far-right political bed-fellows EFP had got two.

Coun Browne, said: "I am satisfied on the whole with how we did.

"The Liberal Democrats have done best of the three main parties."

"But I'm upset because I predicted that the Labour Party would lose control."

Tory group leader Coun Colin Rigby said: "I am disappointed with the result for the group, we have not gained any and only lost."

The EFP's gains were the election of Michael Johnson in Fernhurst and Mark Cotterill in Meadowhead.

Coun Johnson, 45, is the landlord of Uncle Jack's pub, Brand Road, Darwen.

He said that campaigning on local issues had helped him win. He denied the EFP was the same as the BNP.

Coun Cotterill, 45, of Bunkers Hill Close, Blackburn, is the leader of the EFP.

He is a self-employed publisher who prints the nationalist magazine Heritage and Destiny, and sells football memorabilia on the internet.