Elections to

Portsmouth City Council Portsmouth City Council is the local authority of the city of Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It provides a full range of local government s ...

took place on Thursday 2 May 2019, alongside other

local elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

across the country. The seats contested in this election were last contested in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

. 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 ...

had 8 seats they were defending, the Liberal Democrats 5 and Labour 1 seat. A by-election occurred within the vacant Cosham seat from last years election, due to the sitting Conservative standing down. No party gained a majority from this election, and therefore the council remains under no overall control. Following the election, the Liberal Democrat minority administration that was formed in 2018 continued in office. Labour abstained on the vote for the council leader, with the Liberal Democrats winning the vote by virtue of being the single largest party.

Background

Elections to Portsmouth council since 2012 have proven to have volatile and changing results, with eleven of the city's fourteen wards voting for different parties each year. Following the 2018 election in Portsmouth, in which one third of the council was elected, the

UK Independence Party 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 par ...

lost all of their seats. Gerald Vernon-Jackson became leader of the council. A Conservative councillor for

Cosham Cosham ( or ) is a northern suburb of Portsmouth lying within the city boundary but off Portsea Island. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 along with Drayton and Wymering (mainland) and Bocheland ( Buckland), Frodington (Fratton) and C ...

who was elected, James Fleming, was forced to resign as he was not attending meetings due to long term sickness. This means that the Cosham ward will have two seats up for election. The Conservatives also faced an internal inquiry during this campaign due to one of their former candidates claiming he was racially abused.

Election results

Immediately ahead of this election, the composition of the council was: After the election result, the composition of the council became: As the council is elected in thirds, one councillor for each of the 14 wards are elected each year. All comparisons in seats and swing are to the corresponding 2015 election.

Results by ward

Comparisons for the purpose of determining a gain, hold or loss of a seat, and for all percentage changes, is to the last time these specific seats were up for election in

. An asterisk indicates the incumbent councillor.

Baffins

Central Southsea

Charles Dickens

Copnor

Cosham

Drayton & Farlington

Eastney and Craneswater

Fratton

Hilsea

Milton

Nelson

Paulsgrove

St Jude

St Thomas

References

{{Hampshire elections

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

2010s in Hampshire May 2019 events in the United Kingdom