Major parties suffer losses in local elections

Local election results have been revealed showing widespread gains for ‘wild card’ party Reform UK, while Labour and Conservative candidates faced huge losses.

The local elections, with polling taking place on 1st May, gave citizens a chance to vote on county councils in England. These are the upper tier responsibility roles in areas with two tiers of local government. 23 councils are holding elections, alongside six mayors.

Some mayoral contests and the byelection results were counted overnight, with results announced early on Friday morning. For other councils, the results were counted during the day, througout the afternoon.

If a party has more than half of the councillors on a council, this makes that party 'in control' of that council. If no party has more than half of the council seats, the council has 'no overall control' (NOC). 

Reform UK made big gains, with 677 councillors winning seats. They had no councillors in 2021. However, as the local elections did not take places across all authorities, they still trail massively behind Labour and the Conservatives, as well as behind the Lib Dems and Greens, in terms of total number of councillors across the UK.

The Liberal Democrats also made a gain of 163 councillors, bringing their total up to 370, almost double their previous showing. This put them second in the polls.

Conservative and Labour seats, however, have fallen, with Conservatives losing 674 councillors and Labour losing 187. Results show that Conservatives have 319 seats in these councils, and Labour only 98. The Conservatives lost control of all 15 councils they won in 2021.

The Green Party have gained 44 councillor seats, putting them at 79, and Independent candidates have lost 20, bringing them down to 89.

Turnout is estimated to be around 35 per cent.

Reform UK now control ten councils, up from zero: Durham, a gain from no overall control (NOC); Lancashire, a gain from Conservative; Kent, a gain from Conservative; Lincolnshire, a gain from Conservative; and Staffordshire, a gain from Conservative; Nottinghamshire, a gain from Conservative; Derbyshire, a gain from Conservative; Doncaster, a gain from Labour; North Hamptonshire, a gain from Conservative; and West Northamptonshire, another gain from Conservative.

Councils that were previously Conservative and are now under no overall control are Devon, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, Leicestershire, Hertfordshire, Worcestershire and Buckinghamshire, with Northumberland and Gloucestershire carrying on being NOC since the last election.

The only other party to gain council stronghold in these elections was the Liberal Democrats, who gained control of Cambridgeshire, Shropshire and Oxfordshire councils.

Labour lost control of one council, whereas the Conservatives lost 16. Ten councils, up from six, have no overall party majority.

Reform also made gains in the mayoral elections. Doncaster, North Tyneside, and West of England have kept their Labour stronghold, with Ros Jones (previously Ros Jones), Karen Clark (previously Norma Redfearn) and Helen Godwin (previously Dan Norris) being elected as their respective mayors.

Conservative Paul Birstow won the mayorship of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough from Labour Nik Johnson, and Andrea Jenkyn became Reform's first mayor (of Greater Lincolnshire), closely followed by the annoucement that Luke Campbell will be the Reform mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire.

A by-election in Runcorn and Helsby, following the resignation of Labour MP Mike Amesbury after he was convicted of punching a constituent earlier this year, also saw Reform gain its sixth MP, Sarah Pochin. Ms Pochin won 38.6 per cent of the vote, beating the Labour candidate by just six votes, and making her the first non-Labour MP to represent Runcorn in 52 years.