Labour's complete grip on Manchester town hall has been broken - thanks to the return of veteran Lib Dem John Leech.
The former MP clinched victory in Didsbury West after a bitter campaign that lasted right up until the polls closed on Thursday.
Mr Leech - who lost his Withington parliamentary seat last May - snatched Didsbury West from Labour with a strong 702 majority.
He alone will now form a one-man opposition in the chamber, facing 95 Labour councillors.
Labour also feared Chorlton Park could go to the Lib Dems, but Joanna Midgley saw off former Lib Dem councillor Norman Lewis.
Labour achieved its ‘historic 96’, boasting every single seat in the council chamber, last year.
The remnants of any sort of opposition, former Moston ‘independent Labour’ councillor Henry Cooper, was banished in 2015.
That total rule - dubbed by some a ‘one party state’ - lasted a year, but a spot of yellow now can now be seen in a sea of red.
Watch Lib Dem John Leech wins Didsbury West and see his victory speech after the result announced
Mr Leech said: “I’m absolutely delighted we’ve brought an end to the one party state. We’ve got an opposition - a Liberal Democrat opposition - back on Manchester council. This is just one small step.
"Over the next two year’s we’re going to be campaigning harder and harder to make sure at the all-out elections in 2018, there will be a much bigger opposition on this council than ever before.”
In 2004, the Lib Dems held 38 seats in the council chamber, with Chorlton, Didsbury and Levenshulme, regularly returning substantial majorities for the party.
But in the coalition era successive elections wiped them all out.
Council leader Sir Richard Leese denied Manchester had become a ‘one-party state’ - and said councillors ‘had to respect the views of the electorate’.
He said scrutiny of the Labour executive had actually been better without any opposition, adding: “The Lib Dems didn’t scrutinise. All they tried to do was to make cheap political points.
“We’e had Labour members doing proper, thorough scrutiny. I hope we will maintain that now we have a scurrilous Lib Dem back on the council.”
The Tories haven’t had a councillor in the city since the late 1990s. And that didn’t change on Friday.
Read more: Greater Manchester local election results live updates: who has won and lost?
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