2016 United Kingdom local elections

2016 United Kingdom local elections

← 2015 5 May 2016 2017 →
All 36 metropolitan boroughs, 19 out of 55 unitary authorities, 70 out of 201 district councils, 4 directly elected mayors, and all 40 Police and Crime Commissioners
Turnout	34%[1]
First party Second party   Leader Jeremy Corbyn David Cameron Party Labour Conservative Leader since 12 September 2015 6 December 2005 Projected vote-share[2] 31% 30% Projected Swing[3] 2% 5% Councils 58 38 Councils +/– 1 Councillors 1,326 842 Councillors +/– 18 48   Third party Fourth party   Leader Tim Farron Nigel Farage Party Liberal Democrats UKIP Leader since 16 July 2015 5 November 2010 Projected vote-share[2] 15% 12% Projected Swing[3] 4% 1% Councils 4 0 Councils +/– 1 Councillors 378 58 Councillors +/– 45 25
Council control following the 2016 local elections in England.   Conservative   Labour   Liberal Democrats   No overall control   No election in 2016

The 2016 United Kingdom local elections held on Thursday 5 May 2016 were a series of local elections which were held in 124 local councils and also saw 4 mayoral elections in England which also coincided with elections to the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly, the Northern Ireland Assembly, the London Assembly, the London mayoral election and the England and Wales Police and crime commissioners.^[4][5] By-elections for the Westminster seats of Ogmore and Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough were also held. These proved to be David Cameron's last local elections as leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister as he resigned two months later following the defeat of Remain in the referendum on Britain's continuing membership of the European Union which was held seven weeks later.

Full results as reported by BBC News.^[6]

Party		Councils		Councillors
		Number	Change	Number	Change
	Labour	58		1,326	18
	Conservative	38	1	842	48
	Liberal Democrats	4	1	378	45
	Independent	0		77	3
	UKIP	0		58	25
	Green	0		45	3
	Residents	0		39	8
	Liberal	0		4	1
	Respect	0		0	5
	No overall control	24		n/a	n/a

As these local elections were held in 124 English councils, out of 418 in the whole of the UK, the BBC calculated a Projected National Vote Share (PNV), which aims to assess what the council results indicate the UK-wide vote would be "if the results were repeated at a general election".^[7]

The BBC's Projected National Vote Share was 31% for Labour, 30% for the Conservatives, 15% for the Liberal Democrats and 12% for UKIP.^[7] These results are included in the infobox for this article. Longstanding elections analysts Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher of Plymouth University estimate a National Equivalent Vote (NEV) share, and in 2016 put Labour on 33%, the Conservatives on 31%, the Liberal Democrats on 14% and UKIP on 12%.^[8]

David Cameron celebrated the results, stating that his party did well despite being in office for six years up to that point.^[9] The results were viewed as mixed or poor for Labour. Jeremy Corbyn claimed that the results were better than anticipated, given that Labour was expected to lose more councillors and councils.^{[10] [11] [12]} The Liberal Democrats failed to win back areas where they lost seats in prior elections, though they did make a slight recovery after heavy losses in 2015. UKIP was also assessed to have underperformed, given its association with the upcoming 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.^[13]

Three of 36 metropolitan boroughs had all of their seats up for election.^[14]

32 of 36 metropolitan boroughs had one-third of their seats up for election.^[14]

3 unitary authorities had all of their seats up for election.^[14]

16 unitary authorities had one-third of their seats up for election.^[14]

12 District Councils had all of their seats up for election.^[14]

7 non-metropolitan district councils had half of their seats up for election.^[14]

51 non-metropolitan district councils had one-third of their seats up for election.^[14]

Four direct mayoral elections were held.^[14]

40 elections for Police and Crime Commissioners were held.

• 2016 London Assembly election
• 2016 London mayoral election
• 2016 National Assembly for Wales election
• 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly election
• 2016 Scottish Parliament election
• 2016 Ogmore by-election
• 2016 Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough by-election

• Local Government Political Control Archived 7 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine