The 2017 United Kingdom local elections were held on Thursday 4 May 2017. Local elections were held across Great Britain, 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, the Liverpool City Region, Tees Valley, the West Midlands, and the West of England. In addition, Doncaster and North Tyneside re-elected local authority mayors. Local by-elections for 107 council seats also took place on 4 May.
The Conservative Party led under Prime Minister Theresa May 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 and West Midlands.
The local elections were followed by a general election on 8 June.
Eligibility to vote All registered electors (British, Irish, Commonwealth and European Union citizens) who were aged 18 or over (or aged 16 or over in Scotland) 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 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 and Wales; 17 April 2017 in Scotland).Note that Easter Monday is a working day in Scotland. Anyone qualifying as an anonymous elector had until midnight on 25 April 2017 to register.The deadline for the receipt and determination of anonymous electoral registration applications is one working day before the publication date of the notice of alteration to the Electoral Register (that is the sixth working day before polling day). cf
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, and one was the Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council.Ashley Cowburn, Local elections 2017: When are they and why could they be so important?,The Independent (3 May 2017).
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 councillors. The remaining 217 seats were held by residents' associations and minor parties. A by-election for the parliamentary constituency of Manchester Gorton (caused by the death of Gerald Kaufman, 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 was called for the following month.
Results
Overall results - Great Britain Party Councillors Councils WonAfter+/-WonAfter+/- 1,8999,2395632820011 1,1486,46738291067 4411,8124208 4314317001 134614500 20820838111 39187500 7021,52533681 colspan=3 44815
As elections were not held throughout the country, the BBC 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, 27% for Labour, 18% for the Liberal Democrats and 5% for the UK Independence Party, 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, whilst Labour has not performed so badly since 2010. The turnout was 35.3%.
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 Party Votes Vote % +/- Councils +/- Seats +/- 3,036,709 46.5% 12.2%27 101,439 319 1,299,846 19.9% 1.6%2 1 418 142 1,164,779 17.8% 4.2%0 312 28 302,368 4.6% 15.6%01143 284,735 4.4% 0.8%020 Others 438,985 6.7% 0.2%01996 n/an/an/a 59n/a n/aTotal6,545,055100342,389
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 Party Votes % +/- Councils +/- Seats +/- 294,98930.4%4.5%73468112 218,81722.5%1.3%313092 182,52018.8%6.3%1118479 160,51916.5%0.5%1120838 66,0226.8%1.2%06310 12,4411.3%0.2%011 11,0061.1%0.3%002Others 24,5942.5%0.3%0217 n/a n/a n/a101 n/a n/aTotal970,908100221,254
For comparative purposes, the table above shows changes since 2012 across 21 local authorities and the 2013 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="color:inherit;background-color:"| | style="text-align:left;" |Scottish National Party |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="color:inherit;background-color:"| | style="text-align:left;" |Conservative |478,073 |25.3% | 12.0% |0 | |115 |112 |276 |22.5% |style="background-color:#dfd"| 164 |- style="text-align:right;" | style="color:inherit;background-color:"| | style="text-align:left;" |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="color:inherit;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="color:inherit;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="color:inherit;background-color:"| | style="text-align:left;" |Green |77,682 |4.1% | 1.8% |0 | |14 |14 |19 |1.6% |style="background-color:#dfd"| 5 |- style="text-align:right;" | style="color:inherit;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="color:inherit;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="color:inherit;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="color:inherit;background-color:"| | style="text-align:left;" |UK Independence Party |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="color:inherit;background-color:"| | style="text-align:left;" |TUSC |1,403 |0.1% | |0
|0.0% | |- style="text-align:right;" | style="color:inherit;background-color:"| | style="text-align:left;" |A Better Britain – Unionist Party |1,196 |0.1% | |0
|0.0% | |- style="text-align:right;" | style="color:inherit;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="color:inherit;background-color:"| | style="text-align:left;" |Solidarity |883 |0.0% | |0
|0.0% | |- style="text-align:right;" | style="color:inherit;background-color:"| | style="text-align:left;" |Libertarian |776 |0.0% | |0
|0.0% | |- style="text-align:right;" | style="color:inherit;background-color:"| | style="text-align:left;" |RISE |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="color:inherit;background-color:"| | style="text-align:left;" |Scottish Unionist |129 |0.0% | |0
|0.0% | |- style="text-align:right;" | style="color:inherit;background-color:"| | style="text-align:left;" |Social Democratic |112 |0.0% | |0
|0.0% | |- style="text-align:right;" | style="color:inherit;background-color:"| | style="text-align:left;" |Scottish Christian |104 |0.0% | |0
|0.0% | |- style="text-align:right;" | style="color:inherit;background-color:"| | style="text-align:left;" |Socialist Labour |76 |0.0% | |0
|0.0% | |- style="text-align:right;" | style="color:inherit;background-color:"| | style="text-align:left;" |National Front |39 |0.0% | |0
|0.0%
|- style="text-align:right;" | style="color:inherit;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
Council control (voting areas only) Council control (whole UK) Before elections After elections Before elections After elections Largest party by popular vote (including mayoral elections)
Conservative Labour SNP Plaid Cymru Independents0 10 20 30 40 % and its vote share and the size of its majority
England
Non-metropolitan county councils All 27 county councils for areas with a two-tier structure of local governance had all of their seats up for election. These were first-past-the-post elections in a mixture of single-member and multi-member electoral divisions.
These were the last elections to Dorset and Northamptonshire county councils.