The 2023 Sunderland City Council election took place on 4 May 2023 to elect members of

Sunderland City Council Sunderland City Council is the local authority of the City of Sunderland in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of five in Tyne and Wear and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, and provides the major ...

. There were 25 of the 75 seats of the council up for election, being the usual third of the council. The election took place at the same time as other local elections across England. Labour retained its majority on the council. The Liberal Democrats overtook the Conservatives to become the largest opposition party. The Liberal Democrats were led into the election by Niall Hodson, but he was replaced as party leader after the election by Paul Edgeworth.

Background

25 of the 75 seats will be up for election Since the first election in

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

, Sunderland has been a strongly

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 ...

council, which consistently achieves over 60% control of the council. However, in recent years they have lost seats to 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 ...

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 Liberal Democrats. The seats up for election this year were last elected in

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 ...

. In that election,

lost 10 seats, The

gained 4 and Liberal Democrats gained 3. In 2022,

defied speculation they would continue to haemorrhage, Leader Graeme Miller commented that "It was a good night" for his party because they "stopped the rot". Since the last election, three councillors have defected from the

, one to

Reform UK Reform UK is a right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. It was founded with support from Nigel Farage in November 2018 as the Brexit Party, advocating hard Euroscepticism and a no-deal Brexit, and was briefly a significant po ...

, and one who currently sits as an Independent and is not standing for re-election. In the last election the

were outperformed by the Liberal Democrats, who gained one more seat. There was speculation that the Liberal Democrats could take over from the

as the main opposition party on the council.

Result summary

Council Composition

In the last council, the composition of the council was:

Results by ward

An asterisk next to a candidate’s name denotes an incumbent councillor. All changes shown below are in relation to the 2019 local election.

Barnes

Castle

Copt Hill

Doxford

Fulwell

Hendon

The election in Hendon was countermanded due to the death of the Conservative candidate, Syed Ali. It was held on 15 June.

Hetton

Iain Scott was elected in a by-election on 30 September 2021 due to the death of the incumbent Labour councillor Doris Turner.

Houghton

Millfield

Pallion

Redhill

John Usher was elected in a by-election on 3 March 2022 due to the resignation of the incumbent Independent councillor Keith Jenkins.

Ryhope

Sandhill

Shiney Row

Silksworth

Southwick

St Anne's

Pam Mann won this seat in 2019 as a UKIP candidate.

St Chad's

St Michael's

St Peter's

Washington Central

Washington East

Washington North

Washington South

Washington West

References

{{2023 United Kingdom local elections

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

Sunderland City Council elections