THE Conservatives lost three seats across Worcester in a bruising day of drama at the ballot box – which saw the Green Party make an historic breakthrough at County Hall for the first time ever.

Tory veteran Allah Ditta was thrashed in the Rainbow Hill ward, losing out by 378 votes to Labour Councillor Paul Denham, while Conservative Mary Drinkwater got 910 votes in St Stephen but was defeated by Green Matthew Jenkins, who polled 1,179.

Elsewhere, the Conservatives also lost Nunnery, where Labour Councillor Pat Agar defeated Keith Burton by 425 votes, and the Liberal Democrats clung on to Claines, with Councillor Sue Askin edging out Tory Mike Whitehouse by just 114.

The other major story of the day was the march of UK Independence Party, which polled 25 per cent of the vote in seats it was contesting across Worcester, finishing second or third in swathes of areas.

It came second in Bedwardine, Gorse Hill and Wardon Parish and a close third in Rainbow Hill, with UKIP grabbing 4,207 of the votes across the city compared to over 7,700 for Labour and the Conservatives each.

Councillor Jenkins, Worcestershire County Council’s first ever Green, said: “I’m absolutely delighted about this result, it’s been a lot of hard work to get us this far and following on from Mary Drinkwater will be a big task.”

Mrs Drinkwater, who had been on County Hall for 12 years and was first elected to Worcester City Council in the early 1980s, said: “It’s very sad but I loved every minute of it, I’ve made so many friends and will miss them tremendously.”

The count almost took an incredible twist as Tory Councillor Simon Geraghty, targeted by UKIP, saw his Riverside seat majority slashed from well over 600 to 131.

Coun Geraghty, the deputy leader at County Hall and current leader of Worcester City Council, said he was relieved to have clung on.

“It was a very close result but I expected it given the fact the Government is mid-term and the difficult backdrop we had to face,” he said.

“UKIP has pulled in a larger than expected number of votes and I don’t think these election results reflect on the job people think we are doing at Worcestershire County Council.”

The Conservatives did hang on to St Peter’s, where Councillor Marc Bayliss, the current city council deputy leader, won to enter County Hall for the first time.

“I’m very pleased, it’s been a real team effort for us,” he said.

Labour also held on to seats in Gorse Hill and St John’s, while the Conservatives retained Bedwardine and Warndon Parish.

Carl Humphries, UKIP organiser for Worcester and Mid-Worcestershire, said: “This sends a real message to David Cameron - people are disgusted with what he’s doing to the country.”

Worcester MP Robin Walker said Labour were “going backwards in parts of Worcester”, but Councillor Adrian Gregson, who leads the city’s Labour group, said it had been a “quite pleasing” election outcome.

Overall, the Tories got 43 more votes than Labour, securing the popular vote by the narrowest of margins.

"Labour need to be questioning why they are not doing better than this," said Mr Walker.