The 2018 United Kingdom local elections were held on Thursday 3 May 2018, with local council elections taking place in all 32 London boroughs, 34 metropolitan boroughs, 67 district and borough councils and 17 unitary authorities. There were also direct elections for the mayoralties of Hackney, Lewisham, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Watford.
With the exception of those areas that have had boundary changes, the seats up for election were last contested in the 2014 local elections.
A parliamentary by-election in West Tyrone took place the same day. Various other local by-elections also took place.
Seats held prior to the election
According to a BBC News estimate, taking into account boundary changes, the major political parties are effectively defending the following 'notional' numbers of council seats on election day:
Labour Party – 2,278 seats Conservative Party – 1,365 seats Liberal Democrats – 462 seats UK Independence Party – 126 seats Greens – 31 seats
These numbers are how many seats each party won at the previous comparable election, generally in 2014, rather than which party held the seat on the eve of the election. Some other news agencies, such as the Press Association, compare against the party holding a seat on the eve of the election, leading to a different analysis of gains and losses.
There are also 48 Residents Associations' councillors, and 100 'other' / independent councillors.
Eligibility to vote All registered electors (British, Irish, Commonwealth and European Union citizens) aged 18 or over on polling day were entitled to vote in the local elections. A person with two homes (such as a university student having a term-time address and living at home during holidays) was able to register to vote at both addresses as long as the addresses were not in the same electoral area, and was able to vote in the local elections for the two different local councils.
In certain councils, there was a trial system in place where photo ID was required to vote. These councils were: Swindon, Gosport, Woking, Bromley, and Watford. An estimated 4,000 electors were turned away from polling stations across these trial areas as a result of not having the appropriate form of ID.
Results The number of councils controlled by each party following the election are shown in the table below. Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats made modest gains in terms of their respective number of councillors, whereas the Conservatives made a net loss of 35 seats. UKIP lost nearly all of the 126 seats they were defending, with only 3 councillors elected. The turnout for the election was 35.0%.
Overall results Party Councillors Councils WonAfter+/-WonAfter+/- 1,3329,11835461993 2,3536,4957974105 5421,889769114 colspan=1 43000 colspan=1 20300 39198800 311612300 911,6451507 colspan=3 21821
Results in London
The following table shows the aggregate results for the 32 councils that were up for election in London.
PartyCouncillorsCouncils Number Change†Number Change 1,12867211 5089272 1523432 2520 1170 750 090 110 110 —11
†Due to boundary changes, the figures for seat losses/gains are notional changes calculated by the BBC, and do not match up precisely to the London-wide results in 2014.
Results outside of London
The following table shows the aggregate results for the 118 councils that were up for election outside of London.
PartyCouncillorsCouncils Number ChangeNumber Change 1,22512531 82457391 3904262 89120 2810 210 31140 110 —20
Only four councils switched from a majority for one party to another. The Conservatives gained Redditch from Labour, and lost control of three councils to the Liberal Democrats: Kingston upon Thames, Richmond upon Thames and South Cambridgeshire. The Liberal Democrats also gained Three Rivers District Council from no overall control. Labour gained a majority on three councils that had been under no overall control (Kirklees, Plymouth and Tower Hamlets) while losing their majority on two (Derby and Nuneaton and Bedworth). The Conservatives gained a majority on one council that had been under no overall control (Basildon) while losing their majority on two (Mole Valley and Trafford).
Labour won the inaugural mayoral election for the Sheffield City Region. Five other mayoral elections saw no change in the winning party: Labour held four and the Liberal Democrats held one.
Analysis This was the first set of local elections since the 2017 general election. Most of the seats up for election had last been contested in the 2014 local elections.
Because the group of local councils varies with each cycle of local elections, the BBC and other analysts calculated a projected national vote share, 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 estimate put Labour on 35% of the vote (up 8% since 2017), the Conservatives on 35% (down 3%), the Liberal Democrats on 16% (down 2%). In the May 2017 local elections, the projected national voteshare was 38% for the Conservatives, 27% for Labour, 18% for the Liberal Democrats and 5% for UKIP. When votes were still being counted, media reports widely described the result as "mixed" for both Labour and the Conservatives.Citations:
The results suggested that support for the parties had not moved much since the general election 11 months earlier. Some reports considered the results a relief for Theresa May and the Conservatives.
Ben Margulies, a research fellow at the University of Warwick, noted how the UK Independence Party's collapse in vote share directly benefited the Conservatives as they committed to exiting the European Union. Margulies stated that the Conservatives' position with the electorate will "remain perched on a precipice". Matthew Mokhefi-Ashton, a politics lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, argued that Labour had set their expectations too high and thus made the actual result look disappointing by comparison. David Cutts, a professor of political science at the University of Birmingham, described the Liberal Democrats' performance in the election as "underwhelming" in contrast to the media response, arguing that the party only made moderate gains in their strongholds from before the Liberal-Conservative coalition and council areas that were seen as "Strong Remain" and "Strong Leave". Cutts argued that the next local elections in England are a greater test of their stability as they feature substantially more strongholds.
London boroughs
All seats in the 32 London borough councils were up for election.
Council Previous control Result Barking and Dagenham Barnet (Conservative minority) Bexley Brent Bromley Camden Croydon Ealing Enfield Greenwich Hackney Hammersmith and Fulham Haringey Harrow Havering (Conservative minority) (Conservative minority) Hillingdon Hounslow Islington Kensington and Chelsea Kingston upon Thames Lambeth Lewisham Merton Newham Redbridge Richmond upon Thames Southwark Sutton Tower Hamlets (Labour minority) Waltham Forest Wandsworth Westminster
Metropolitan boroughs
Whole council
4 metropolitan boroughs had all of their seats up for election following boundary changes.
Council Previous control Result Birmingham Leeds Manchester Newcastle upon Tyne
One-third of council
One third of the seats in 30 metropolitan boroughs were up for election:
Council Previous control Result Barnsley Bolton Bradford Bury Calderdale (Labour minority) (Labour minority) Coventry Dudley (Conservative minority) (Conservative minority) Gateshead Kirklees (Labour minority) Knowsley Liverpool North Tyneside Oldham Rochdale St Helens Salford Sandwell Sefton Sheffield Solihull South Tyneside Stockport (Labour minority) (Labour minority) Sunderland Tameside Trafford (Labour with Lib Dem support) Wakefield Walsall (Conservative minority) (Conservative minority) Wigan Wirral Wolverhampton
Unitary authorities Whole council
One unitary authority had all of its seats up for election following boundary changes.
Council Previous control Result Kingston upon Hull
Third of council
One third of the council seats were up for election in 16 unitary authorities. Council Previous control Result Blackburn with Darwen Derby (Con with UKIP and Lib Dem support) Halton Hartlepool Milton Keynes (Labour with Lib Dem support) (Labour with Lib Dem support) North East Lincolnshire (Lab minority) (Lab with Lib Dem support) Peterborough (Conservative minority) Plymouth Portsmouth (Conservative minority) (Lib Dem with Lab support) Reading Slough Southampton Southend-on-Sea Swindon Thurrock (Conservative minority) (Conservative minority) Wokingham
Non-metropolitan districts
Whole council
Seven non-metropolitan districts have all of their seats up for election.
Council Previous control Result Eastleigh Harrogate Hastings Huntingdonshire Newcastle-under-Lyme (Conservative minority) (Conservative minority) South Cambridgeshire South Lakeland
Half of council
Six non-metropolitan districts have half of their seats up for election.
Council Previous control Result Adur Cheltenham Fareham Gosport Nuneaton and Bedworth (Lab minority) Oxford
Third of council
54 district councils had one third of their seats up for election. Weymouth and Portland originally had elections scheduled for 2018, but the elections were postponed indefinitely following a decision to merge the council into a unitary Dorset Council from 2019 onwards.
These were the last elections to Daventry District Council, following the decision to abolish it along with Northamptonshire County Council and its 7 district councils into two unitary authorities in 2020.
Council Previous control Result Amber Valley Basildon Basingstoke and Deane Brentwood Broxbourne Burnley Cambridge Cannock Chase Carlisle Castle Point Cherwell Chorley Colchester Craven Crawley Daventry Elmbridge Epping Forest Exeter Great Yarmouth Harlow Hart Havant Hyndburn Ipswich Lincoln Maidstone Mole Valley North Hertfordshire Norwich Pendle Preston Redditch Reigate and Banstead Rochford Rossendale Rugby Runnymede Rushmoor St Albans Stevenage Tamworth Tandridge Three Rivers Tunbridge Wells Watford Welwyn Hatfield West Lancashire West Oxfordshire Winchester Woking Worcester Worthing Wyre Forest
Mayoral elections
There were five local authority mayoral elections and one metropolitan mayoral election.
Combined authorities Combined Authority New mayor Sheffield City Region (South Yorkshire)
Local authorities Council Previous mayor New mayor Hackney Lewisham Newham Tower Hamlets Watford
Notes
References