2017 United Kingdom local elections
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The 2017 United Kingdom local elections were held on Thursday 4 May 2017. Local elections were held across
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
, 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 Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...
, the
Liverpool City Region The Liverpool City Region is a combined authority region of England, centred on Liverpool, incorporating the local authority district boroughs of Halton, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens, and Wirral. The region is in the historic counties of ...
,
Tees Valley Tees Valley is a mayoral combined authority and Local enterprise partnership area in northern England, around the River Tees. The area is not a geographical valley. The LEP was established in 2011 and the combined authority was establish ...
, the
West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
, and the
West of England West of England is a combined authority area in South West England. It is made up of the Bristol, South Gloucestershire, and Bath and North East Somerset unitary authorities. The combined authority is led by the Mayor of the West of England Dan N ...
. In addition, Doncaster and North Tyneside re-elected local authority mayors. Local
by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...
s for 107 council seats also took place on 4 May. The Conservative Party led under
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...
enjoyed the best local election performance in a decade, making significant gains at the expense of the Labour Party. The UK Independence Party lost every seat they were defending, but gained just one seat at the expense of the Labour Party. The Liberal Democrats lost 41 seats, despite their vote share increasing. The Conservatives won four out of six metro-mayoral areas, including in the traditionally Labour-voting
Tees Valley Tees Valley is a mayoral combined authority and Local enterprise partnership area in northern England, around the River Tees. The area is not a geographical valley. The LEP was established in 2011 and the combined authority was establish ...
and
West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
. The local elections were followed by a
general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
on 8 June.


Eligibility to vote

All registered electors (
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
,
Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
,
Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...
and European Union citizens) who were aged 18 or over (or aged 16 or over in
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
) on polling day were entitled to vote in the local elections. 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 In electoral systems, voter registration (or enrollment) is the requirement that a person otherwise eligible to vote must register (or enroll) on an electoral roll, which is usually a prerequisite for being entitled or permitted to vote. The ru ...
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. Individuals had to be registered to vote by midnight twelve working days before polling day (13 April 2017 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 ...
and
Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
; 17 April 2017 in
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
). Anyone qualifying as an
anonymous elector An anonymous elector is generally a registered voter whose safety would be at risk if their details were available on a public electoral register. Australia In Australia, a voter anonymously registered is known as a silent elector. To be a silent ...
had until midnight on 25 April 2017 to register.


Seats held prior to the election

In total, 4,851 council seats were up for election in 88 councils; additionally six new mayors were directly elected.Local elections: Voters set to head for the polls
BBC News (3 May 2017).
Approximately 10,000 people were candidates for election.Elections 2017: Polls close across England
BBC News (4 May 2017).
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. Of the 35 English councils up for election, 27 were county councils, seven were
unitary authorities A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...
, and one was the
Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England, based at the Doncaster Civic Office in Waterdale, central Doncaster. It is one of four local authories in South Y ...
. 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 Mebyon Kernow – The Party for Cornwall (, MK; Cornish for ''Sons of Cornwall'') is a Cornish nationalist, centre-left political party in Cornwall, in southwestern Britain. It currently has five elected councillors on Cornwall Council, and s ...
councillors. The remaining 217 seats were held by residents' associations and minor parties. A
by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...
for the parliamentary constituency of
Manchester Gorton Manchester Gorton is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Labour's Afzal Khan, who was elected at the 2017 general election. It is the safest Labour seat in Greater Manchester by numerical majority and ...
(caused by the death of
Sir Gerald Kaufman Sir Gerald Bernard Kaufman (21 June 1930 – 26 February 2017) was a British politician and author who served as a minister throughout the Labour government of 1974 to 1979. Elected as a member of parliament (MP) at the 1970 general election, ...
, 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 A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
was called for the following month.


Results


Overall results - Great Britain

As elections were not held throughout the country, the 
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 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 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 ...
, 27% for 
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 ...
, 18% for the  Liberal Democrats and 5% for 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 ...
, with others on around 12%. 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 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
, whilst Labour has not performed so badly since 2010. UKIP lost 145 of their 146 seats. Prominent former UKIP members talked of the party being finished and that it should disband.


Results by nation


England

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.


Wales

For comparative purposes, the table above shows changes since 2012 across 21 local authorities and the
2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...
result from Anglesey Council.


Scotland

Following boundary changes: , -style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center font-size:95%;";" !colspan="2" rowspan="2" width="175", Party !colspan="3" rowspan="2" width="175", First-preference votes ! scope="col" rowspan="2", Councils ! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width: 30px;", +/- ! colspan="2" , 2012 seats ! colspan="2" , 2017 seats ! colspan="2" , Seat change , - ! Seats won ! Notional ! Seats won ! Seat % ! vs Notional , - , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,
Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...
, 610,454 , 32.3% , 0.0 , 0 , style="background-color:#ffe8e8;", 1 , 425 , 438 , 431 , 35.1% , style="background-color:#ffe8e8;", 7 , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,
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 ...
, 478,073 , 25.3% , 12.0% , 0 , , 115 , 112 , 276 , 22.5% , style="background-color:#dfd", 164 , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,
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 ...
, 380,957 , 20.2% , 11.4% , 0 , style="background-color:#ffe8e8;", 3 , 394 , 395 , 262 , 21.4% , style="background-color:#ffe8e8;", 133 , - , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Independents , 196,438 , 10.4% , 1.4% , 3 , , 196 , 198 , 168 , 14.1% , style="background-color:#ffe8e8;", 30 , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Liberal Democrats , 130,243 , 6.9% , 0.3% , 0 , , 71 , 70 , 67 , 5.5% , style="background-color:#ffe8e8;", 3 , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,
Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...
, 77,682 , 4.1% , 1.8% , 0 , , 14 , 14 , 19 , 1.6% , style="background-color:#dfd", 5 , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Orkney Manifesto Group , 894 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , 2 , 0.1% , style="background-color:#dfd", ''New'' , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , West Dunbartonshire Community , 2,413 , 0.1% , , 0 , , , , 1 , 0.1% , style="background-color:#dfd", ''New'' , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , The Rubbish Party , 784 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , 1 , 0.1% , style="background-color:#dfd", ''New'' , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,
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 ...
, 2,920 , 0.2% , 0.1% , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - style="text-align:right;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Independent Alliance North Lanarkshire , 2,823 , 0.2% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,
TUSC Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is a socialist electoral alliance launched in Britain for the 2010 general election. TUSC's co-founder was the RMT union general secretary Bob Crow. Members of the PCS, NUT, FBU and POA uni ...
, 1,403 , 0.1% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , A Better Britain – Unionist Party , 1,196 , 0.1% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Scottish Socialist , 928 , 0.0% , 0.3% , 0 , , 1 , , 0 , 0.0% , style="background-color:#ffe8e8;", 1 , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,
Solidarity ''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictio ...
, 883 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,
Libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...
, 776 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,
RISE Rise or RISE may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * '' Rise: The Vieneo Province'', an internet-based virtual world * Rise FM, a fictional radio station in the video game ''Grand Theft Auto 3'' * Rise Kujikawa, a vide ...
, 186 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - style="text-align:right;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Scottish Independent Network , 145 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Scottish Unionist , 129 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,
Social Democratic Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...
, 112 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Scottish Christian , 104 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Socialist Labour , 76 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , National Front , 39 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - , - style="text-align:right;" , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , No Overall Control , — , — , — , 29 , style="background-color:#dfd;", 4 , — , — , — , — , — , - ! colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" , Total , style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , 1,889,658 , style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , 100.0 , style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , ±0.0 , style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , 32 , style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , , style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , 1,223 , style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , 1,227 , style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , 1,227 , style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , 100.00 , style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , ''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.


Maps


England


Non-metropolitan county councils

All 27
county councils A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries. Ireland The county councils created under British rule in 1899 continue to exist in Irela ...
for areas with a two-tier structure of local governance had all of their seats up for election. These were
first-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...
elections in a mixture of single-member and multi-member electoral divisions. These were the last elections to Dorset and Northamptonshire county councils. : ‡ New electoral division boundaries : † 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.


Unitary authorities

Seven single-tier
unitary authorities A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...
held elections, with all of their seats up for election. These were
first-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...
elections in a mixture of single-member and multi-member electoral divisions or wards.


Metropolitan boroughs

One
metropolitan borough A metropolitan borough (or metropolitan district) is a type of local government district in England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan districts within metropolitan ...
, the
Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster The City of Doncaster is a metropolitan borough with city status in South Yorkshire, England. It is named after its principal settlement, Doncaster, and includes the surrounding suburbs of Doncaster as well as numerous towns and villages. The di ...
, had all of its seats up for election, after moving to whole council elections in 2015. This was a
first-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...
election in a mixture of two-member and three-member wards.


Mayoral elections


Combined authority mayors

Six elections were held for directly elected regional mayors. These newly established positions lead
combined authorities A combined authority is a type of local government institution introduced in England outside Greater London by the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009. Combined authorities are created voluntarily and allow a group ...
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. The election of the
Sheffield City Region Combined Authority The South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority is the combined authority for South Yorkshire in England, with powers over transport (public transport and major trunk roads only), economic development and regeneration. It covers a total area of 3 ...
mayor was postponed in January 2017 and, following legal action, did not occur until the 2018 local elections. The
North East Combined Authority The North East Combined Authority, abbreviated to NECA, is one of three combined authorities in North East England. It was created in 2014, and currently consists of the City of Sunderland; Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, South Tyneside; and ...
deal was scrapped as several councils in the region voted down the proposal, however the smaller
North of Tyne combined authority The North of Tyne Combined Authority is a mayoral combined authority which consists the local authorities of Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside, and Northumberland, all in North East England. The authority came into being on 2 November 2018 u ...
was approved by the councils and by parliament for the 2019 local elections. The other devolution deals that were scrapped were for the Norfolk and Suffolk, Greater Lincolnshire and the Solent. There were concerns at the low turnout recorded.


Local authority mayors

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


Scotland


Wales

: † In 2014, the only Welsh Liberal Democrat cabinet member defected to Welsh Labour; thus the Liberal Democrats left the coalition. In 2015, several Independent councillors created their own group within the council called Conwy First. This group later on went to support the council instead of the remaining five independent councillors, so that the coalition was then made up of Plaid Cymru, Welsh Labour and Conwy First. : ‡ The Welsh Liberal Democrats later lost their only seat on the Council, thereby leaving the coalition. : †† At the original election Plaid Cymru won exactly half the seats; they later took control of the council by winning a by-election.


See also

* 2017 City of London Corporation election


Notes


References

{{Portal bar, Politics, United Kingdom 2017 elections in the United Kingdom
2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
May 2017 events in the United Kingdom