The 2023 East Riding of Yorkshire Council election took place on 4 May 2023 to elect all 67 members of East Riding of Yorkshire Council in England. This was on the same day as other local elections across England.
The Conservatives lost their majority on the council at this election, which saw the council go under no overall control.
The Conservatives remained the largest party and managed to form a minority administration. Immediately after the election the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats both changed their group leaders. The Conservative leader Jonathan Owen was replaced by Anne Handley, who was then appointed the new leader of the council at the subsequent annual council meeting on 18 May 2023. The Liberal Democrats replaced their leader David Nolan with Denis Healy. There had been no Labour councillors prior to the election; there were four afterwards and they appointed Steve Gallant as their leader.
Results summary
Almost a quarter of the 67 councillors prior to the election did not stand for re-election.
Ward results
Sitting councillors are marked with an asterisk (*).
Beverley Rural
Bridlington Central and Old Town
Bridlington North
Bridlington South
Cottingham North
Cottingham South
Dale
Driffield and Rural
East Wolds and Coastal
Goole North
Goole South
Hessle
Howden
* Elected as a Conservative, but defected to the Liberal Democrats mid term
Howdenshire
Mid Holderness
Minster and Woodmansey
North Holderness
Pocklington Provincial
Snaith, Airmyn and Rawcliffe and Marshland
South East Holderness
South Hunsley
South West Holderness
St Mary's
Tranby
Willerby and Kirk Ella
Wolds Weighton
Changes 2023–2027 David Nolan, elected as a Liberal Democrat in 2023, joined Labour in January 2024. Nolan resigned from Labour in September 2025, in opposition to the government's identity card plans, and said he intended to sit as an independent. Maria Bowtell, elected as a Conservative in 2023, joined Reform UK in February 2024. Bowtell proceeded to resign from Reform UK in March 2025, and later joined Restore Britain in February 2026, becoming their first councillor nationally. Caroline Fox, elected as a Conservative, left the party in May 2024 to sit as an independent. Samantha Whyte (later Samantha Christon-Whyte), elected as a Conservative in 2023, left the party to sit as an independent, before joining Reform UK on 26 February 2026. Andy Walker and Tim Norman, both elected for the Yorkshire Party in 2023, left the party in July 2025 to form East Riding Council's first Green Party group; their Bridlington South ward colleague Rick Arrand also left the Yorkshire Party at the same time but sits as an independent. Denise Howard, elected as a Conservative in 2023, defected to Reform UK in October 2025.
By-elections
Minster and Woodmansey
The by-election followed the death of the sitting Liberal Democrat councillor, Peter Astell, a former mayor of Beverley first elected to the ward in May 2023, who died suddenly on 3 December 2023.
Tranby
The by-election followed the death of the sitting Liberal Democrat councillor, Viv Padden, who died on the same day as Astell, 3 December 2023, after an illness resulting from a stroke.
East Wolds and Coastal
The by-election followed the resignation of the sitting Conservative councillor, Charlie Dewhirst, who stood down in June 2024 ahead of his election, on the same day as the by-election, as Member of Parliament for Bridlington and The Wolds.
South East Holderness
The by-election followed the resignation of the sitting Conservative councillor, Claire Holmes.
Notes
References