The 2007 United Kingdom local elections were held on Thursday 3 May 2007. These elections took place in most of England and all of Scotland. There were no local government elections in Wales though the Welsh Assembly had a general election on the same day. There were no local government elections in Northern Ireland. Just over half of English councils and almost all the Scottish councils began the counts on Friday, rather than Thursday night, because of more complex arrangements regarding postal votes.
These elections were a landmark in the United Kingdom as it was the first time that 18- to 20-year-olds could stand as candidates for council seats. The change was due to an alteration of the Electoral Administration Act. At least fourteen 18- to 20-year-olds are known to have stood as candidates for council seats and as a result William Lloyd became the youngest person to be elected to official office in Britain. There were also a number of councils which used new voting methods such as internet and telephone voting in addition to the traditional methods of polling stations and postal votes.
These were the final elections to be overseen by Labour leader and prime minister Tony Blair, who resigned the following month after a decade as prime minister to be succeeded by chancellor Gordon Brown. His party only finished in second place with a narrow lead over the third-placed Liberal Democrats, whose leader Menzies Campbell would also resign later in the year, while it was a strong showing for the Conservatives under David Cameron.
Results There was a suggestion in February 2006 that many of the 2007 local elections in England would be cancelled due to a reform of local government. However, since then possible reforms are still in the consultation stage and no decisions have yet been made.
312 English district councils, nearly all districts in England held some form of election – either thirds or full – on Thursday, 3 May 2007.
The final results are summarised below; firstly, with a table ranked by the party with the greatest number of councillors elected.
Party Councils Councillors Number Change Number Change 165 39 5,458 932 234 2,337255 3618 2,225665 01 363182 1 6719 06217 0101 091 088 071 051 041 03 011 001 001 Other4949162 8527n/an/a Source BBC BBC NEWS | Politics | Vote 2007 | English councils map
England
Mayoral elections
Council Independent Conservative LabourLiberal DemocratGreenElectedResultBedford 15,96710,7104,75710,5511,538Frank BranstonIndependent holdMansfield 13,7562,7708,7741,9441,489Tony EggintonIndependent holdMiddlesbrough 17,4551,7333,5397,026no candidateRay MallonIndependent hold
Scotland
All 32 Scottish councils had all their seats up for election - all Scottish councils are unitary authorities. These local elections were held on the same day as the Scottish Parliament general election. They were the first election for local government in mainland Great Britain to use the Single transferable vote (the system is used in Northern Ireland), as implemented by the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004.
Summary of results
Party Councils - majority Councils - in coalition/minority Councillors 011363 211348 012166 08143 008 Scottish Socialist Party001 Solidarity001 Other39193 No overall control27--
Councils
The notional results in the following table are based on a document that John Curtice and Stephen Herbert (Professors at the University of Strathclyde) produced on 3 June 2005, calculating the effect of the introduction of the Single Transferable Vote on the 2003 Scottish Local Elections.
Council 2003 result(control before May 2007, if different) Notional control(based on 2003 results) 2007 result Details Aberdeen City (LD + Con)NOC (LD + SNP)Details Aberdeenshire (LD + Ind)NOC (LD + Con)Details Angus NOC (Ind + Con + LD + Lab)DetailsArgyll and Bute Independent (Ind + SNP)Details Clackmannanshire NOC (Lab minority)Details Dumfries and Galloway (LabLabour minority control. The council was previously run by a coalition of Scottish Liberal Democrats, Independents and the SNP.)NOC (Con + LD)Details Dundee City (Lab + LD+ Con)NOC (Lab + LD)Details East Ayrshire Labour (SNP minority)Details East Dunbartonshire (LDLiberal Democrats lack a majority (LD: 12 councillors; opposition: 12 councillors))NOC (Lab + Con)Details East Lothian NOC (SNP + LD)Details East Renfrewshire (Lab + LD)NOC (Lab + LD + Ind + Con)Details City of Edinburgh (NOC: LabLabour lack a majority, after by election loss to Scottish National Party (Lab: 29 councillors; opposition: 29 councillors))NOC (LD + SNP)Details Falkirk (SNP + Ind + Con)NOC (Lab + Ind + Con)Details Fife (LabLabour minority administration)NOC (LD + SNP)Details Glasgow City Labour DetailsHighland Independent (Ind + SNP)Details Inverclyde NOC (Lab minority)Details Midlothian NOC (Lab minority)DetailsMoray Independent (Ind + Con)DetailsNa h-Eileanan Siar Independent Details North Ayrshire Labour (Lab minority)Details North Lanarkshire Labour DetailsOrkney Independent Details Perth and Kinross (SNP + LD + Ind)NOC (SNP + LD)Details Renfrewshire NOC (SNP + LD)Details Scottish Borders (Ind + Con)NOC (Ind + Con + LD)DetailsShetland Independent Details South Ayrshire (ConConservative and Unionist control, on a cut of the cards (Con: 15 councillors; opposition: 15 councillors))NOC (Con minority)Details South Lanarkshire Labour (Lab minority)Details Stirling (NOC: LabLabour lack a majority, after by election loss to Scottish National Party (Lab: 11 councillors; opposition: 11 councillors))NOC (Lab minority)Details West Dunbartonshire Labour (SNP + Ind)Details West Lothian NOC (SNP + Ind)Details
Pre-election predictions A Newsnight poll by the analysts Rallings and Thrasher some days before the election predicted the following results for the English council elections:
Con 38% (Conservatives gaining 330 seats and losing 2% of the vote on 2006)
Lab 24% (Labour losing 500 seats and losing 2% of the vote on 2006)
LD 29% (Liberal Democrats gaining 110 seats and gaining 2% of the vote on 2006)
However, these predictions, as in 2006, were largely inaccurate, underestimating Conservative support and grossly overestimating the Lib Dems' performance. However, it did accurately predict the number of seats Labour would lose.
Notes and references
External links Results table (BBC News) Overview of councils up for election CityMayors article Young candidates article