The 2026 Leeds City Council election took place on 7 May 2026 alongside other local elections across the United Kingdom.
Prior to the election, the council was under Labour majority control. At the election, the council went under no overall control. Labour remained the largest party but fell two seats short of a majority. Labour subsequently managed to form a minority administration, with the incumbent leader of the council, James Lewis, being reappointed to the role at the subsequent annual council meeting.
Electoral system Leeds City Council area is divided into 33 electoral wards. Each ward elects 3 councillors, giving a total of 99 councillors. Councillors are elected for four-year terms using the first-past-the-post system. Elections are held by thirds, with one councillor from each ward elected in each of three consecutive years, followed by a year without council-wide election (or a fallow year). No election was held in 2025.
Background The Labour Party had held a majority on the council continuously since the 2011 Leeds City Council election.
At the previous election in 2024, the Labour Party received 43.3% of the popular vote and held 61 seats, maintaining its overall majority.
Prior to the 2026 election, Labour’s number of seats had fallen to 56.
The 2026 election was the first scheduled Leeds City Council election since the 2024 general election. Most of the seats had last been contested in 2022. However, owing to subsequent resignations and by-elections, two of the seats were last up for election in 2023 and another two in 2024.
In the run-up to the election, the Labour Party was widely expected to suffer losses amid decline in national opinion polls and the unpopularity of Prime Minister Keir Starmer. In Leeds, Labour faced challenges from the Green Party, particularly in more diverse and student-heavy areas, while Reform UK posed a significant challenge in parts of east Leeds.https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/03/labour-fights-off-greens-leeds-roundhay
Pre-election projections Right before the election day, the PollCheck projection showed that Labour would lose its majority on the council, falling to 46 seats, with the Greens and Reform UK projected to increase their representation to 15 and 9 seats respectively; the Conservatives were projected to fall to 11 seats, the Liberal Democrats to hold 7, and other parties and independents to hold a combined 11.https://www.pollcheck.co.uk/council-projections/leeds/#/leeds
Council composition Overall council composition After 2024 election Before 2026 election After 2026 election Party Seats Party Seats Party Seats 61 56 48 15 13 14 6 6 11 5 6 10 4 3 6 3 3 3 3 3 3 0 2 3 2 3 0 Vacant N/A Vacant 4 Vacant N/A Working majority Working majority Working majority short
Composition of seats up for election As elected Prior to the election After the election Party Seats Party Seats Party Seats 21 17 9 7 6 8 3 2 7 2 2 7 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 2 0 Vacant N/A Vacant 4 Vacant N/A
Incumbents
Ward Incumbent councillor First electedParty Re-standing Re-elected Adel & Wharfedale Barry Anderson 1999 Conservative No N/A Vacant — n/a N/A N/A Alwoodley Dan Cohen 2011 Conservative Yes Yes Ardsley & Robin Hood Karen Renshaw 2004 Labour No N/A Armley Alice Smart 2014 Labour No N/A Beeston & Holbeck Annie Maloney 2022 Labour No N/A Bramley & Stanningley Kevin Ritchie 2014 Labour Yes Yes Burmantofts & Richmond Hill Luke Farley 2022 Labour Yes Yes Calverley & Farsley Andrew Carter 1973 Conservative Yes Yes Chapel Allerton Eileen Taylor 2008 Labour Co-op Yes No Cross Gates & Whinmoor Pauleen Grahame 2002 Labour No N/A Farnley & Wortley David Blackburn 1998, 2024 Green No N/A Garforth & Swillington Mark Dobson 2007 G&SI Yes Yes Gipton & Harehills Salma Arif 2016 Labour Yes Yes Guiseley & Rawdon Eleanor Thomson 2022 Labour Yes Yes Harewood Matthew Robinson 2010 Conservative No N/A Headingley & Hyde Park Jonathan Pryor 2014 Labour Yes No Horsforth Emmie Bromley 2022 Labour Yes Yes Hunslet & Riverside Ed Carlisle 2022 Green Yes Yes Killingbeck & Seacroft John Tudor 2022 Labour Yes No Kippax & Methley Mary Harland 2012 Labour Yes Yes Kirkstall Hannah Bithell 2018 Labour Yes No Little London & Woodhouse Kayleigh Brooks 2018 Labour Yes No Middleton Park Wayne Dixon 2022 SDP Yes Yes Moortown Vacant — n/a N/A N/A Morley North Bob Gettings 2007 Independent No N/A Vacant — n/a N/A N/A Morley South Oliver Newton 2022 Morley Borough Independents No N/A Otley & Yeadon Colin Campbell 1982, 2004 Liberal Democrats Yes Yes Pudsey Simon Seary 2018 Conservative Yes Yes Rothwell Stewart Golton 1998 Liberal Democrats Yes Yes Roundhay Zara Hussain 2021 Independent No N/A Temple Newsam Debra Coupar 2003, 2006, 2013 Labour No N/A Vacant — n/a N/A N/A Weetwood Izaak Wilson 2022 Labour Yes Yes Wetherby Norma Harrington 2018 Conservative Yes Yes
Election summary Labour recorded 23.9% of the popular vote, its lowest vote share in a Leeds City Council election since the council’s establishment in 1973, although it remained the largest party both in the vote and seat share. The popular vote was highly fragmented, with Labour, Reform UK and the Green Party finishing within 2.2 percentage points of each other. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats both recorded declines in their vote shares but held all the seats they were defending.
Turnout at the election was 41.49%, an increase of 7.3 percentage points from 2024 and the highest turnout at a Leeds City Council election since 2015, when the council election was held concurrently with the general election, and the first time since then that turnout had exceeded 40%.
|- style="text-align: right; font-weight: bold;" ! scope="row" colspan="2" | Total | 221 | 36 | 14 | 14 | | 100.0 | 100.0 | 259,832 | N/A |- style="text-align: right;" ! scope="row" colspan="8" | Rejected ballots | 0.2 | 546 | |- style="text-align: right; font-weight: bold;" ! scope="row" colspan="8" | Total | 100.0 | 260,378 | |- style="text-align: right; font-weight: bold;" ! scope="row" colspan="8" | Turnout/registered electors | 41.5 | 576,656 | 7.3
Results by ward Source: Leeds City Council election results page.https://www.leeds.gov.uk/elections/leeds-city-council-election-results
An asterisk (*) denotes the incumbent councillor seeking re-election.
Adel and Wharfedale Two seats were up to election due to the resignation of councillor Caroline Anderson.
Alwoodley
Alwoodley returned the Conservatives’ strongest result of the election, with 57.3% of the vote.
Ardsley and Robin Hood
The ward recorded Reform UK’s highest vote share, with the party winning 41.6% of the vote.
Armley
Beeston and Holbeck
Bramley and Stanningley
Bramley and Stanningley recorded Labour’s best performance, where it won 43.8% of the vote, compared with 65.5% in Burmantofts and Richmond Hill at the previous election in 2024.
Burmantofts and Richmond Hill
Calverley and Farsley
Chapel Allerton
The Green gain from Labour represented the largest majority overturned at the election. In 2022, Labour had won the ward by 3,959 votes, a majority of 62.8 percentage points.
Cross Gates and Whinmoor
Farnley and Wortley
Garforth and Swillington
The ward recorded the Green Party’s and Liberal Democrats’ lowest vote shares of the election, with the parties receiving 5.4% and 1.1% of the vote respectively.
Gipton and Harehills
Guiseley and Rawdon
Harewood
Headingley and Hyde Park
The ward recorded the lowest turnout in the election, at 28.0%. It also returned the highest vote share achieved by any party, with the Green Party winning 70.6% of the vote, and produced the largest percentage majority, at 49.8 percentage points. The Conservatives and Reform UK recorded their lowest vote shares of the election in the ward, receiving 1.6% and 3.7% of the vote respectively.
Horsforth
Hunslet and Riverside
Killingbeck and Seacroft
Kippax and Methley
Kirkstall
Little London and Woodhouse
The ward recorded the largest swing of the election, with a 37.5% swing from Labour to Green Party. The ward also saw the largest increase in vote share, with the Greens gaining 38.2 percentage points, and the largest decrease, with Labour’s vote share falling by 36.8 percentage points.
Middleton Park
Middleton Park was the SDP’s only victory of the election, with the party retaining the ward despite a reduced vote share.
Moortown
Morley North Two seats were up to election due to the resignation of councillor Robert Finnigan.
Morley South
Otley and Yeadon
Pudsey
Rothwell
Despite a sizeable decrease, the ward recorded the Liberal Democrats’ highest vote share in the election, at 52.5%
Roundhay
Roundhay was the closest contest of the election, with Labour retaining the ward by just 74 votes, a majority of 0.8 percentage points, over the Green Party.
Temple Newsam Two seats were up to election due to the resignation of councillor Nicole Sharpe.
Weetwood
Wetherby
The ward recorded the highest turnout in the election, with 51.5% of registered electors casting a ballot, and Labour’s lowest vote share, at 6.5%.
Post-election events Following the election, Labour councillor James Lewis, who had served as leader of the council since 2021, was re-elected to the post, heading a minority administration.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3924lzvy9lo
Labour councillor Stephen Holroyd was appointed the 132nd Lord Mayor of Leeds, the first openly gay person to hold the office.https://www.leeds.gov.uk/councillors-and-democracy/lord-mayor
Changes between 2026 and 2027 May 2026: Jessica Lennox (Labour, Cross Gates and Whinmoor ward) leaves the party to sit as an independenthttps://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/politics/council/political-control-of-leeds-city-council-to-be-announced-next-week-after-local-election-8549937 September 2026: Peter Carlill (Labour, Calverley and Farsley ward) resigns, citing "health reasons". By-election scheduled for October September 2026: Cristiana Mirosanu (Green, Chapel Allerton) leaves the party to sit as an independent
By-elections
Calverley & Farsley
References