THE leader of Thurrock Council John Kent is to change wards ahead of May’s local elections.

Mr Kent, who has served as a councillor in Thurrock since 1993, is to stand in the Grays Thurrock ward in place of fellow Labour councillor Yash Gupta, who’s standing down after 20 years in the job.

Former Thurrock councillor and Mayor Tony Fish is to stand in Mr Kent’s place in Grays Riverside, just a year after losing his seat in the Ockendon ward to Ukip’s Kevin Wheeler.

Mr Kent said: “This is the first opportunity I’ve had to stand in the ward that I live in with Yash retiring.”

The upcoming elections in May are a big moment for Mr Kent and his party. The last two elections in 2014 and 2015 saw Labour lose seven seats, going from overall control with 25 members to now having 18, just one more than the Conservatives.

In the same time, Ukip has seen its numbers rise from one to 11 members. The Eurosceptic party and the Tory group are confident of eating further into the Labour vote in three months’ time.

A defiant Mr Kent said: “Local elections should be about local issues, and it’s about who you think are the most credible and competent people to run the local authority. We’ve got a record of stability and keeping council tax down, improving local services and helping local schools to improve.

“If you contrast that with what happened in the four years before we took the administration here, there was millions of pounds spent on paying off senior officers under compromise agreements and we had budgets routinely overspent.”