Elections to

Manchester City Council Manchester City Council is the local authority for Manchester, a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. Manchester is the sixth largest city in England by population. Its city council is composed of 96 councillors, three ...

were held on 2 May 2019, as part of the 2019 United Kingdom local elections. In 2018 Labour retained its majority of the council with 94 seats to the Liberal Democrats making up the opposition of 2, led by former MP John Leech.

Background and campaign

Labour won every seat on Manchester City Council between

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and

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 ...

. In 2016, former Liberal Democrat MP John Leech, who lost his seat in

Manchester Withington Manchester Withington is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Jeff Smith of Labour. Of the 30 seats with the highest percentage of winning majority in 2017, the seat ranks 25th with a 55.7% ma ...

in the 2015 General Election won a seat in Didsbury West and was joined by another Liberal Democrat Councillor in 2018. Following the resignation of Fallowfield councillor Grace Fletcher-Hackwood on 19 March, two vacancies were filled in the Fallowfield ward; the candidate who received the most votes won the full four-year term and the second placed candidate took over the three years remaining of the vacant seat. On 25 March, Manchester Lib Dem leader John Leech launched his party's manifesto for the 2019 elections. This was followed by 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 f ...

launching their manifesto for the local elections on 9 April. On 15 April, ''The Times'' uncovered a number of offensive tweets from Fallowfield Labour candidate Jade Doswell. In 2014, Doswell had tweeted that she was a "little bit sick in my mouth" at the sight of an Israeli flag and claimed the flag was 'offensive' and provocative’. She apologised on a private Facebook post. On 17 April, ''Manchester Evening News'' reported that the Liberal Democrat candidate for Hulme, Daniel Tóth-Nagy, had been suspended from the party after tweeting "There is no such thing as

Islamophobia Islamophobia is the fear of, hatred of, or prejudice against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general, especially when seen as a geopolitical force or a source of terrorism. The scope and precise definition of the term ''Islamophobia'' ...

" and making other comments deemed Islamophobic. Tóth-Nagy denied that he had ever "express dhatred or violent against any person", but the party issued a statement condemning the comments and immediately withdrew their support for him. On 30 April, the ''Manchester Evening News'' reported that the

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 ...

candidate for Charlestown, Charalampos Kagouras, had been dropped by the party as a candidate due to years of racist and Islamophobic posts on social media.

Result

Changes are compared with the 2018 results. Socialist Alternative changes in vote share are compared to the results for Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition. Where 2 seats were contested simultaneously due to a vacancy the results for that ward have been normalised.

Council composition

Before the election, the composition of the council was: After the election, the composition of the council is:

Ward results

Asterisks denote incumbent Councillors seeking re-election. Councillors seeking re-election were elected in 2018, and results are compared to that year's polls on that basis.

Ancoats and Beswick

Ardwick

Baguley

Brooklands

Burnage

Charlestown

Cheetham

Chorlton

Chorlton Park

Clayton and Openshaw

Crumpsall

Deansgate

Didsbury East

Didsbury West

Fallowfield

Gorton and Abbey Hey

Harpurhey

Higher Blackley

Hulme

*On 17 April, Dániel Tóth-Nagy was suspended by the Liberal Democrats over allegedly Islamophobic comments made on social media.

Levenshulme

Longsight

Miles Platting and Newton Heath

Moss Side

Moston

Northenden

Old Moat

Piccadilly

Rusholme

Sharston

Whalley Range

Withington

Woodhouse Park

Changes since this election

On 24 July 2019 it was reported that Majid Dar ( Ancoats and Beswick) had been suspended by the Labour Party. He was readmitted to the party and to the Labour group on the council without formal announcement. On 18 March 2020 Greg Stanton ( Didsbury West) resigned from the Liberal Democrats to sit as an independent. Later, in April, he joined the Labour Party. On , Sue Murphy (

Brooklands Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfields, ...

) died after a long illness.

Clayton and Openshaw by-election

Clayton and Openshaw councillor Andy Harland died in December 2019. A by-election took place on Thursday 27 February 2020 to fill the vacancy. Changes are compared with the 2019 result.

References

{{Greater Manchester elections Manchester City Council elections 2019 English local elections May 2019 events in the United Kingdom 2010s in Manchester