Opposition parties in Basildon are in talks to form an alliance to oust the Tories after they lost control of the town in during the local elections.

Labour hopes to team up with the Wickford Independents and Independent councillors to form a rainbow alliance, similar to the one that took control of the council in 2017 before losing out to the Conservatives the following year.

Labour, which is led by councillor Gavin Callaghan, won six of the 14 seats that were up in last week’s local elections while the Wickford Independents, led by councillor David Harrison, won two.

One Independent councillor also gained a seat.

Mr Callaghan said: “In 2017 we worked well in an alliance with Independents and if that can be agreed again, Labour would be open to that.

“Discussions are still ongoing as you can imagine. We want to make sure every corner of the borough is listened to and that we have a proper plan which could actually govern the council and make a positive difference to residents for the whole year.”

Independent Councillor Kerry Smith, said he was very confident about the talks and he expects the alliance to be in power soon.

“We will have the rainbow alliance back in power,” he said.

“We are in negotiations but they are looking positive, to be honest I think they should send myself, Gavin Callaghan, Derrick Fellowes and David Harrison out to Brussels to negotiate.

“As an alliance we put a lot of positive things forward but then you look at this last Tory administration and you can write what they have achieved on back of postage stamp.”

Tory leader Andrew Baggott claimed the deal had been done before the election meaning voters were conned.

He said: “Rhey seemed to have made a deal six weeks ago, so they had made a deal prior to the election and that is misleading the electorate. After the elections I opened a line of dialogue with the supposed independent councillors and each said they didn’t want to speak, which to me is not independent or open-minded. We will continue to put together an order paper as we are the largest party and have a responsibility.”