Campaigning

The Conservatives stood candidates in 96% of the available seats, Labour contested 77%, the Liberal Democrats 53%, the Green Party of England and Wales 30% and UKIP 16%.^[26]

According to the Electoral Reform Society, there were 148 councillors who were elected unopposed, largely Conservatives.^[27] New parties the Brexit Party and Change UK, although both standing in European elections later in the month, did not stand in the local elections.^[28] Chuka Umunna, Change UK's spokesperson, recommended voters support anti-Brexit parties like the Liberal Democrats or Greens.^[29] Leave.EU encouraged people to spoil their ballot paper in protest at delays in Brexit.^[30]

Nationally, Labour organised their campaign on raising awareness of the impact of the austerity programme by the Conservative-led government on local councils, which led subsequently to higher council tax and reduced local services.^[31] As an effect of cuts to council budgets, council spending per person has fallen 30% since 2010.^[32] The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, commented that the economic policies of Preston City Council, where Labour took control of the council in 2011, were a model that he wanted other Labour councils to follow. Their changes saw the public procurement budget rise significantly, unemployment decrease and quality of life improve.^[33] Labour sought to avoid talking about Brexit, but internal rows over their Brexit policy continued to create headlines.^[34]

Similarly, the Conservatives focused their campaign away from Brexit and instead on efficient local services, low council tax and green credentials.^[35][36][37] This detraction from Brexit, however, was quite difficult. Internal party sources voiced a negative outlook on the success of these elections,^[38] with the deputy chair of the party saying it was an opportunity for voters to protest against the party's handling of the Brexit negotiations.^[39] ConservativeHome interviewed ten Conservative councillors about how the campaigning had gone across the country and found a negative attitude.^[12] Defence secretary Gavin Williamson was sacked the day before the elections, which was predicted to be unhelpful for the Conservative campaign.^[40]

There were isolated incidents of politically motivated violence during the election campaign. There were a few cases of councillors, from the Labour and Conservative parties, being assaulted whilst campaigning.^[41] A currently unknown assailant fired shots at the home of a Labour councillor in Sheffield.^[42] Homes with Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green signs were damaged in Lewes,^[43] and a Liberal Democrat candidate's car was attacked and painted with swastikas in Faversham.^[44]

England

More information Party, Councillors ...

Party		Councillors		Councils		Votes[citation needed]		Projected national equivalent[n 1]
		Number	Change	Number	Change	Number	Share
	Conservative	3,564	1,330	93	44	2,985,959	31.4%	28%
	Labour	2,021	84	60	6	2,531,907	26.6%	28%
	Liberal Democrats	1,351	704	18	10	1,602,042	16.8%	19%
	Green	265	194	0		878,485	9.2%	25%
	UKIP	31	145	0		430,455	4.5%
	RA	119	49	2	1	1,080,328	11.4%
	Health Concern	8	6	0
	Liberal	7	1	0
	Independent and minor parties	1,045	606	2	2
	No overall control	—		73	37	—

Close

^† Final results^[45]

The Conservatives lost control of 44 councils and more than 1,300 council seats. It was the worst Conservative local election performance since 1995, when the party lost more than 2,000 seats.^[46] Labour, despite topping national polls, lost 6 councils and more than 80 seats.^[47]

Parties supporting remaining in the EU performed well.^[48] The Liberal Democrats made the most gains of any party,^[49][50] while the Greens also picked up seats with the largest percentage growth. This election was the largest rise in Green council seat gains in 20 years.^[51] There was also a significant increase in the number of independent and local party councillors, with their number of seats more than doubling. Similarly, in Northern Ireland, Alliance (the Lib Dems' sister party), some smaller parties and independents also made significant gains.^[52]

The elections were marked by a number of spoiled ballots expressing anger toward the Brexit stances of the Conservative and Labour parties.^[53] In the voter ID trial areas an average of 102 voters in each pilot area failed to vote due to not having the required documentation, compared with 70 per pilot area in 2018.^[51]

Analysis

Leading up to the election, journalists had noted the Conservatives' had performed well when these council seats had last been elected in the 2015 local elections due to those elections coinciding with the 2015 general election, where the party made gains.^[12][11] Defending those gains was predicted to be difficult, and when combined with Theresa May's struggle to deliver on Brexit, various sources predicted a loss of between 500 and 1000 seats for the Conservatives.^[54][55] Conservative peer Lord Robert Hayward projected that his party would lose at least 800 seats, with 500 to go to the Liberal Democrats and 300 to Labour.^[56]

The BBC and other analysts calculated projected national vote shares from these local election results. These projections aim 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 and the Conservatives on 28% (both down 7% from the local elections the previous year), the Liberal Democrats on 18% (up 2%) and all other parties combined on 25%.^[1]

Sir John Curtice, who calculated the BBC's national projected vote share, commented that the rise of smaller parties and in particular the independents showed a dissatisfaction with the party system presently. Additionally, Curtice noted how the Green party benefited from recent climate protests across the country.^[57]

Some argued that the Conservatives had set their expectations so low so that the perceived significance of their losses was reduced.^[58] Media reports described the results as poor for both Labour and the Conservatives, with many noting decline of Labour representation in some leave areas. It was also regarded as a disappointing result for Labour because of expectations that they would make gains.^{[n 5]}

Will Jennings, a professor at the University of Southampton analysed ward-level data and found little correlation between Labour's decline and the level of Brexit support in a ward. Labour made both gains and loses in areas that both voted to leave and remain in the 2016 referendum. Jennings instead noted the results better fit the transition in British politics at that time; where large cities, areas with high student populations, and professionals were moving towards Labour, whilst deindustrialised towns were moving towards the Conservatives.^[59]

Simon Briscoe, statistician and director of The Data Analysis Bureau, was critical of the idea that the Liberal Democrats had experienced a surge on the scale that commentators described. He instead attributed their gains to a much lower turnout when compared to the 2015 local elections. An example of this is that any swings in vote share towards the Liberal Democrats masked the fact that the number of votes for them hadn't changed significantly from 2015.^[60]

Martin Baxter, the creator of the political analytics website Electoral Calculus, suggested that the election data indicated that the next general election could produce a Labour-Scottish Nationalist coalition government.^[61]

Metropolitan boroughs

In 33 of the 36 English metropolitan borough councils, one-third of their seats were up for election. Elections were not held in Birmingham, Doncaster or Rotherham.

Unitary authorities

Elections took place in 47 of the 55 unitary authorities. No elections took place in Bristol, Cornwall, the Isle of Wight, Shropshire, Warrington or Wiltshire.

By-elections took place in Durham (2 seats) and Northumberland, in addition to those indicated below.

Non-metropolitan districts

Elections took place in 168 non-metropolitan districts.

The new districts of Somerset West and Taunton, East Suffolk and West Suffolk held their first elections in 2019. They replace Taunton Deane, West Somerset, Waveney, Suffolk Coastal, Forest Heath, and St Edmundsbury.

Aylesbury Vale, Chiltern, Corby, Daventry, East Northamptonshire, Kettering, Northampton, South Bucks, South Northamptonshire, Wellingborough and Wycombe originally had elections scheduled for 2019, but the elections were postponed in law following a decision to merge these councils into unitary authorities covering Northamptonshire^[74] and Buckinghamshire.^[75]

Additionally, there were no elections in Adur, Cheltenham, Fareham, Gloucester, Gosport, Harrogate, Hastings, Huntingdonshire, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Oxford, South Cambridgeshire or Stroud.

A by-election was held in Newcastle-under-Lyme, in addition to those indicated below.

Mayoral elections

Six direct mayoral elections were held. Five are for local authorities (the Mayoralty of Torbay is abolished this year):

One election was held for a regional mayor: this newly established combined authority was set up by groups of local councils, much like similar devolution deals across the country, giving the combined authorities additional powers and funding.