Liberal Democrat leader Stephen Brown admitted his party was still in a state of shock after its hugely disappointing General Election defeats for Evan Harris and Dr Steven Goddard.

Mr Brown admitted his party had re-assessed its expectations in the council elections following those two losses.

However, he said he was heartened that the party was “moving in the right direction” again after winning one more seat on the city council which they lost minority control of in 2008.

He said: “People are in a state of shock. Of course there is disappointment that the Labour group has gained overall control and we’ve not made more gains.

“Given the results last night I wasn’t under any false illusions about what the result was going to be.”

But he added: “I’m feeling very pleased with the result, and that we have gained one seat, as our first objective was to make sure all our sitting candidates got re-elected.”

Although the Tories again failed to win a city council seat, their candidate for Wolvercote, Jonathan Gittos, gave the Lib Dems a scare as the made serious in-roads into the margin held by John Goddard.

However he failed to match new Conservative MP Nicola Blackwood’s achievements – eventually going down by 1,412 votes to 1,149, leaving the successful Mr Goddard free to become the Lord Mayor this year.

Mr Brown said: “The important news from our perspective is we managed to repel the Conservative forces’ attack on the city from the north and the west.

“I’m very, very satisfied our previous leader John Goddard can now become Lord Mayor after he was re-elected.”

Mr Brown said he felt he had the support of his party and expected to remain leader of the Lib Dems when the opposition group holds its AGM shortly.