The

Norfolk County Council Norfolk County Council is the top-tier local government authority for Norfolk, England. Its headquarters are based in the city of Norwich. Below it there are 7 second-tier local government district councils: Breckland District, Broadland Distr ...

election took place across

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

on 2 May 2013, coinciding with local elections for all county councils in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The results were announced the following day, Friday 3 May 2013. The result brought to an end 12 years of

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

administration, who finished three seats short of a majority after losing 20 seats, leaving the Council in no overall control (NOC).

UKIP The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest pa ...

and the Labour Party both made gains of 14 and 11 seats respectively. The Liberal Democrats and the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

both lost three seats each, whilst an independent won a single seat in North Norfolk.

Previous composition

2009 election

Composition of council seats before election

Changes between elections

In between the 2009 election and the 2013 election, the following council seats changed hands:

Summary of Results

, -bgcolor=#F6F6F6 , colspan=2 style="text-align: right; margin-right: 1em" , Total , style="text-align: right;" , 84 , colspan=5 , , style="text-align: right;" , 215,465 , style="text-align: right;" , , -

Gains and Losses

The

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

suffered net a net loss of 20 seats (22 losses and 2 gains); Liberal Democrats a net loss of 3 seats (4 losses and 1 gain); the Green Party lost 3 seats, finishing with four in total. UKIP made 14 gains to become the official opposition, while Labour gained 11 seats, and 1 seat was gained by an independent. The Conservatives lost one seat (Hevingham & Spixworth) to the Liberal Democrats in

Broadland Broadland is a local government district in Norfolk, England, named after the Norfolk Broads. The population of the local authority district taken at the 2011 Census was 124,646. Its council is based in Thorpe St Andrew. In 2013, Broadland wa ...

, one to an Independent candidate (North Coast) in

King's Lynn and West Norfolk King's Lynn and West Norfolk is a local government district with borough status in Norfolk, England. Its council is based in the town of King's Lynn. The population of the Local Authority at the 2011 Census was 147,451. History The district was ...

, 7 seats to Labour (Caister-on-Sea, Yarmouth North & Central, Clenchwarton & King's Lynn South, Gaywood South, King's Lynn North & Central,

Bowthorpe Bowthorpe is a suburban village to the west of Norwich, in the county of Norfolk, England. Geography Bowthorpe is primarily a residential area, but includes a large industrial estate (Bowthorpe Industrial Estate; occupied by mix-use commercia ...

and Catton Grove), as well as losing 13 seats to UKIP (Dereham South, Swaffham, Thetford East, Watton, Breydon, East Flegg, Gorleston St Andrews, Lothingland, Gayton & Nar Valley, Gaywood North & Central, Marshland North, Holt and Melton Constable). The Liberal Democrats lost two seats to the Conservatives (Fakenham and Mundesley, both in

North Norfolk North Norfolk is a local government district in Norfolk, England. Its council is based in Cromer. The population at the 2011 Census was 101,149. History The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972. It was a ...

), one seat to UKIP in

Breckland Breckland in Norfolk and Suffolk is a 39,433 hectare Special Protection Area (SPA) under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. The SPA partly overlaps the 7,544 hectare Breckland Special Area of Conservation. As a la ...

(Thetford West) and one to Labour covering several city wards in the

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

district (Lakenham). The Green Party lost three seats to Labour in

(Mile Cross, Sewell and Town Close).

Incumbent councillors

A total of 55 incumbent councillors were defending their seats for the same party they had stood for in 2009 (or in one of the five subsequent by-election). 41 were successful in retaining their seats, while 14 were not. 41 incumbent Conservative County Councillors were defending their seats at this election, including Judy Leggett (Old Catton), Judith Virgo (Humbleyard) and Barry Stone (Lothingland) who had won their seats in by-elections. Of these 41, 28 were re-elected while the other 13 lost their seats (9 to UKIP, 3 to Labour, 1 to the Liberal Democrats). All 5 Liberal Democrat incumbents held their seats. The Green Party had 3 incumbents defending seats; two were retained, while one was lost to Labour. Labour incumbents successfully defended all 5 of their seats (two of which they had won in by-elections - Susan Whitaker in Lakenham division and Alexandra Kemp (née Kampourpoulos) in Clenchwarton and King's Lynn South division). UKIP's single councillor retained his seat. Incumbents who stood for other parties or as independents (such as former Conservative Jon Herbert in Forehoe) are not counted in these figures.

Group leaders

Bill Borrett (Elmham & Mattishall) was re-elected unopposed as the Conservative group leader, George Nobbs (Crome) was re-elected unopposed as the leader of the Labour Group. The Liberal Democrats elected Dr Marie Strong (Wells) as their new group leader, replacing Mike Brindle who did not stand in this election. Richard Bearman (Mancroft) continued as the leader of the Green Party group.

Richard Toby Coke Richard Townshend Coke (born 1 February 1954), known as Toby Coke and as Richard Toby Coke, is an English landowner and forester who served as leader of the UK Independence Party group on Norfolk County Council from 2013 until 2017. Born at We ...

(Gayton & Nar Valley) was selected as the UKIP group leader.

Turnout

The overall turnout at the election was 32.14% (215,465 votes, out of a total electorate of 670,383). The turnout in each division ranged form 18.09% in King's Lynn North & Central to 50.75% in Holt.

Council Leader Election

With the council now being in no overall control it was unclear who would be elected Leader. In the event, at the initial election for Council Leader on 13 May 2013, the Conservatives lost by 40 votes to 43. After the initial vote, a "rainbow" alliance was formed between Labour, UKIP, The Liberal Democrats with support from the Green Party. Under the agreement, the existing cabinet system would be abolished and replaced by a new committee system with Labour councillor George Nobbs to be nominated to be Leader. On 27 May he was elected by a vote of 42 to 38.

Aftermath

Tom FitzPatrick (Fakenham) replaced Bill Borrett as Conservative group leader on 1 May 2014, however less than 10 months later he was successfully challenged by Cliff Jordan (Yare & All Saints) in the following March. The 'Rainbow Alliance' of UKIP, Labour, and the Liberal Democrats with support from the Greens ran the Council until May 2016, with George Nobbs being re-elected by 43 votes to 40 in 2014, and by 42 to 39 in 2015. However, on 9 May 2016 the Alliance collapsed when the Green Party withdrew its support and abstained in the election for Leader, and Conservative Cliff Jordan won by 41 votes to 37. This enabled the Conservatives to run the Council through a minority administration until the local elections in May 2017.

Candidates by party

There were a total of 364 candidates standing across the whole of the county - an average of in each division. Both the

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

and

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

fielded a full slate of 84 candidates,

stood 70 candidates, the Liberal Democrats stood 62, the

stood 43, and there were 21 other candidates (including 3 for the

Christian Peoples Alliance The Christian Peoples Alliance (CPA) is a Christian rightist political party in the United Kingdom. The party was founded in its present form in 1999, having grown out of a cross-party advocacy group called the Movement for Christian Democracy. ...

, 1 for the United People's Party and 17 independents). Compared to 2009, UKIP had 52 more candidates, there were 6 more independent candidates than 2009, the Conservatives and Labour had the same number, the Liberal Democrats had 7 fewer candidates and the Green Party had 8 fewer candidates. The

British National Party The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and its leader is Adam Walker. A minor party, it has no elected representatives at any level of UK gover ...

did not stand any candidates, compared to the 7 they stood in the previous election. In total, there were 44 more candidates than in 2009.

Candidates and results by division

Below are the results of the election, separated into the 7 districts and 84 divisions.