The fitting is not metallic - the ceiling light is from Ikea and they never seem to have an earth.
That does not mean you can bang the earth in regardless, they need to be terminated together and if the fitting is class II and does not require or have an earth terminal, it should be placed in a separate connector, definitely not in with the neutral!
The light that was installed before worked fine but i completely forgot to note how it was wired.
Schoolboy error!
Yes the light stays on regardless of what i do with the switch.
so you have perm live in at the light terminal.
You need a test meter that can test continuity and live voltage.
As already mentioned, the earth should terminated together but not across the neutral or live terminals shown in picture.
The neutral black stays in neutral terminal and then you say you have three red cores, this will likely be permanent live (this is the feed/supply live) then a switch line that will feed the live to the switch and is connected together with the perm live this is in separate connector not at the live terminal of the light, this is for the red that returns from the switch and that will create your lighting circuit and you should then have a functional switch.
The wire that is left over is a red wire but no idea where i can put this as i am limited as there don't seem to be enough places to put wires. Sorry - bit of an amateur so i'm not sure the correct terminology.
As above you need a couple of spare terminal connectors (one for earth and one for live loop), Ikea and many other suppliers fail to include these and often fail to give correct instructions on the methods used to create a switch function.
If you have two pair of twin and earths and one set has a red and black core plus earth and the seconds set has a pair of reds plus earth. I would edge my bets that the red pair go to and from the switch and the red and black pair are perm live and neutral, but I would always test out and not take this for granted, but a look inside the switch plate may offer clues!
