2017 United Kingdom local elections

2017 United Kingdom local elections

← 2016 4 May 2017 2018 →
All 27 county councils, all 32 Scottish council areas, all 22 Welsh principal councils, 6 out of 55 unitary authorities, 1 out of 36 metropolitan boroughs, 1 sui generis authority, and 8 directly elected mayors
Turnout	35%[1]
Leader Theresa May Jeremy Corbyn Tim Farron Party Conservative Labour Liberal Democrats Leader since 11 July 2016 12 September 2015 16 July 2015 Projected vote-share[n 1] 38% 27% 18% Swing[n 2] 8% 4% 3% Councils 28 9 0 Councils +/– 11 7 Councillors 1,899 1,152 441 Councillors +/– 563 382 42   Leader Nicola Sturgeon Leanne Wood Party SNP Plaid Cymru Leader since 14 November 2014 16 March 2012 Councils 0 1 Councils +/– 1 1 Councillors 431 208 Councillors +/– 7[2] 38
Map showing council control (left) and largest party by ward or division (right) following the election.   Conservative   Labour   Liberal Democrats      Scottish National Party      Plaid Cymru   UKIP   Majority of independent councillors   No overall control   No election on 4 May 2017

The 2017 United Kingdom local elections were held on Thursday 4 May 2017. Local elections were held across Great Britain, with elections to 35 English local authorities and all councils in Scotland and Wales.

Newly created combined authority mayors were directly elected in six areas of England: Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Greater Manchester, the Liverpool City Region, Tees Valley, the West Midlands, and the West of England.^[3] In addition, Doncaster and North Tyneside re-elected local authority mayors.^[3] Local by-elections for 107 council seats also took place on 4 May.^[4]

The Conservative Party led under Prime Minister Theresa May enjoyed the best local election performance in a decade, making significant gains at the expense of the Labour Party.^[5] The UK Independence Party lost every seat they were defending, but gained just one seat at the expense of the Labour Party.^[5] The Liberal Democrats lost 41 seats, despite their vote share increasing.^[6][7][8] The Conservatives won four out of six metro-mayoral areas,^[9] including in the traditionally Labour-voting Tees Valley and West Midlands.

The local elections were followed by a general election on 8 June.

All registered electors (British, Irish, Commonwealth and European Union citizens) who were aged 18 or over (or aged 16 or over in Scotland)^[10] on polling day were entitled to vote in the local elections.^[11] A person who had two homes (such as a university student having a term-time address and living at home during holidays) could register to vote at both addresses as long as they were not in the same electoral area, and could vote in the local elections for the two different local councils.^[12]

Individuals had to be registered to vote by midnight twelve working days before polling day (13 April 2017 in England and Wales; 17 April 2017 in Scotland).^[13][14] Anyone qualifying as an anonymous elector had until midnight on 25 April 2017 to register.^[15]

In total, 4,851 council seats were up for election in 88 councils; additionally six new mayors were directly elected.^[16] Approximately 10,000 people were candidates for election.^[17] All 32 councils in Scotland (1,227 seats) and all 22 councils in Wales (1,254 seats) were up for election; an additional 34 councils (2,370 seats) in England were up for election.^[16] Of the 35 English councils up for election, 27 were county councils, seven were unitary authorities, and one was the Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council.^[18]

According to a BBC News estimate, taking into account boundary changes, the major political parties were effectively defending the following notional results in council seats on election day:

• Labour – 1,535 seats
• Conservatives – 1,336 seats
• Lib Dems – 484 seats
• SNP – 438 seats
• Plaid Cymru – 170 seats
• UKIP – 146 seats
• Green Party – 34 seats

There were also 687 independent councillors and 4 Mebyon Kernow councillors. The remaining 217 seats were held by residents' associations and minor parties.^[19] A by-election for the parliamentary constituency of Manchester Gorton (caused by the death of Sir Gerald Kaufman, the sitting MP) was due to be held on the same day as the local election, but the by-election was cancelled after the general election was called for the following month.^[17]

Party		Councils[20]		Councillors
		Number	Change	Number	Change
	Conservative	28	11	1,899	563
	Labour	9	7	1,152	382
	Independent	6	1	656	13
	Liberal Democrats	0		441	42
	SNP	0	1	431	7
	Plaid Cymru	1	1	208	38
	Green	0		21	1
	Scottish Green	0		19	5
	RA	0		11	2
	Llais Gwynedd	0		6	7
	Mebyon Kernow	0		4
	Health Concern	0		2	1
	UKIP	0		1	145
	Liberal	0		0	3
	Others	0		0
	No overall control	44	4	n/a	n/a
	Total			4,851

As elections were not held throughout the country, 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". The BBC's preliminary Projected National Vote Share was 38% for the Conservatives, 27% for Labour, 18% for the Liberal Democrats and 5% for the UK Independence Party, with others on around 12%.^[21]

This is the highest vote share for the Conservatives in local elections since 2008, when they faced Labour a decade into government and suffering from the financial crisis. The Liberal Democrats have performed better than at any election since 2010, whilst Labour has not performed so badly since 2010.^{[citation needed]}

UKIP lost 145 of their 146 seats. Prominent former UKIP members talked of the party being finished and that it should disband.^[22][23][24]

Party		Votes[25]	Vote %	+/-	Councils[26]	+/-	Seats	+/-
	Conservative	3,036,709	46.5%	12.2%	27	10	1,439	319
	Labour	1,299,846	19.9%	1.6%	2	1	418	142
	Liberal Democrats	1,164,779	17.8%	4.2%	0		312	28
	UKIP	302,368	4.6%	15.6%	0		1	143
	Green	284,735	4.4%	0.8%	0		20
	Others	438,985	6.7%	0.2%	0		199	6
	No overall control	n/a	n/a	n/a	5	9	n/a	n/a
	Total	6,545,055	100		34		2,389

Note that unlike in Scotland and Wales, where all local authorities were up for election, the England results are for only 34 councils out of 353, and should not be taken as reflective of the whole of England.

Party		Votes[27]	%	+/-	Councils	+/-	Seats	+/-
	Labour	294,989	30.4%	4.5%	7	3	468	112
	Independent	218,817	22.5%	1.3%	3	1	309	2
	Conservative	182,520	18.8%	6.3%	1	1	184	79
	Plaid Cymru	160,519	16.5%	0.5%	1	1	208	38
	Liberal Democrats	66,022	6.8%	1.2%	0		63	10
	Green	12,441	1.3%	0.2%	0		1	1
	UKIP	11,006	1.1%	0.3%	0		0	2
	Others	24,594	2.5%	0.3%	0		21	7
	No overall control	n/a	n/a	n/a	10	1	n/a	n/a
	Total	970,908	100		22		1,254

For comparative purposes, the table above shows changes since 2012 across 21 local authorities and the 2013 result from Anglesey Council.

Following boundary changes:

Summary of the 4 May 2017 Scottish council election results^[28][29]

Party		First-preference votes			Councils	+/-	2012 seats		2017 seats		Seat change
							Seats won	Notional	Seats won	Seat %	vs Notional
	Scottish National Party	610,454	32.3%	0.0	0	1	425	438	431	35.1%	7
	Conservative	478,073	25.3%	12.0%	0		115	112	276	22.5%	164
	Labour	380,957	20.2%	11.4%	0	3	394	395	262	21.4%	133
	Independents	196,438	10.4%	1.4%	3		196	198	168	14.1%	30
	Liberal Democrats	130,243	6.9%	0.3%	0		71	70	67	5.5%	3
	Green	77,682	4.1%	1.8%	0		14	14	19	1.6%	5
	Orkney Manifesto Group	894	0.0%		0				2	0.1%	New
	West Dunbartonshire Community	2,413	0.1%		0				1	0.1%	New
	The Rubbish Party	784	0.0%		0				1	0.1%	New
	UK Independence Party	2,920	0.2%	0.1%	0					0.0%
	Independent Alliance North Lanarkshire	2,823	0.2%		0					0.0%
	TUSC	1,403	0.1%		0					0.0%
	A Better Britain – Unionist Party	1,196	0.1%		0					0.0%
	Scottish Socialist	928	0.0%	0.3%	0		1		0	0.0%	1
	Solidarity	883	0.0%		0					0.0%
	Libertarian	776	0.0%		0					0.0%
	RISE	186	0.0%		0					0.0%
	Scottish Independent Network	145	0.0%		0					0.0%
	Scottish Unionist	129	0.0%		0					0.0%
	Social Democratic	112	0.0%		0					0.0%
	Scottish Christian	104	0.0%		0					0.0%
	Socialist Labour	76	0.0%		0					0.0%
	National Front	39	0.0%		0					0.0%
	No Overall Control	—	—	—	29	4	—	—	—	—	—
Total		1,889,658	100.0	±0.0	32		1,223	1,227	1,227	100.00

The table has been arranged according to popular vote, not the number of seats won.

There were boundary changes in many of these councils, with an increase in council seats across the country from 1,223 to 1,227, making direct comparisons with the 2012 results problematic. Notional seats and seat change are based on a notional 2012 result calculated by the BBC.^[30][31]

Council control (voting areas only)		Council control (whole UK)
Before elections	After elections	Before elections	After elections
Majority of Independents   No overall control   No council election on 4 May 2017
Largest party by popular vote (including mayoral elections)		Conservative Labour SNP Plaid Cymru Independents 0 10 20 30 40 %
and its vote share	and the size of its majority
No election on 4 May 2017

All 27 county councils for areas with a two-tier structure of local governance had all of their seats up for election. These were first-past-the-post elections in a mixture of single-member and multi-member electoral divisions.^{[citation needed]}

These were the last elections to Dorset and Northamptonshire county councils.

‡ New electoral division boundaries ^[39]

† The Conservatives lost control in 2013, and were replaced by a Labour/UKIP/Lib Dem coalition with Independent/Green support. The Conservatives regained the council leadership in May 2016 after the Green Party abstained in the annual Council leadership election, and by-elections and defections later brought the Conservative total to 42 seats, giving them exactly 50% of the seats.^[40]

Six single-tier unitary authorities held elections, with all of their seats up for election. These were first-past-the-post elections in a mixture of single-member and multi-member electoral divisions or wards.^{[citation needed]}

One metropolitan borough, the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster, had all of its seats up for election, after moving to whole council elections in 2015.^[45] This was a first-past-the-post election in a mixture of two-member and three-member wards.

The Council of the Isles of Scilly was created by the Local Government Act 1888, meaning they lie outside the classifications of authorities used in the rest of England.

Six elections were held for directly elected regional mayors. These newly established positions lead combined authorities set up by groups of local councils, as part of devolution deals giving the combined authorities additional powers and funding.

Other planned mayoralties have been postponed or cancelled.^[46] The election of the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority mayor was postponed in January 2017^[47] and, following legal action, did not occur until the 2018 local elections.^[48] The North East Combined Authority deal was scrapped as several councils in the region voted down the proposal,^[49] however the smaller North of Tyne combined authority was approved by the councils and by parliament for the 2019 local elections.^[50] The other devolution deals that were scrapped were for the Norfolk and Suffolk,^[51] Greater Lincolnshire^[52] and the Solent.^[53]

There were concerns at the low turnout recorded.^[54][7]

Two elections for directly elected local district mayors will be held. These Mayors act as council leaders in their local authorities.

† In 2014, the only Welsh Liberal Democrat cabinet member defected to Welsh Labour; thus the Liberal Democrats left the coalition.^[55]

In 2015, several Independent councillors created their own group within the council called Conwy First. This group later on went to support the council^{[clarification needed]} instead of the remaining five independent councillors, so that the coalition was then made up of Plaid Cymru, Welsh Labour and Conwy First.^[56]

‡ The Welsh Liberal Democrats later lost their only seat on the Council, thereby leaving the coalition.^[57][58]

†† At the original election Plaid Cymru won exactly half the seats; they later took control of the council by winning a by-election.

• 2017 City of London Corporation election