Conservatives held on to power at County Hall yesterday despite seeing their majority cut.
The Tories went into the election with 33 councillors and emerged with three fewer.
The UKIP challenge to the Conservatives failed to emerge in Leicestershire – as it did elsewhere in the country – but they still returned two councillors and won 13.4 per cent over the vote to the Conservatives 39.4 per cent.
Labour staged a comeback after poor results in 2009, increasing their number of councillors from four to 10.
But they failed to achieved a key aim of overtaking the Liberal Democrats as Leicestershire County Council's biggest opposition party.
The Lib Dems clung on to second place with 13 councillors – one fewer than they had before polling day.
Tory leader Nick Rushton said his party had achieved a fantastic result "in difficult circumstances".
He had to admit he had got it wrong when he predicted UKIP would "not win a damned seat" in Leicestershire.
He said: "I got that wrong. I am surprised but the electorate spoke and we have to respect what they said.
"UKIP split our vote and that is a shame.
"A majority of five is workable.
"We have a tough job. There is no money left but we need to provide the best services for the people of Leicestershire."
• Click to see map of election results and the key points as they were announced: ELECTION 2013: Live results for Leicestershire
