2023_Manchester_City_Council_election

2023 Manchester City Council election

2023 local government election in Manchester

The 2023 Manchester City Council elections took place on 4 May 2023 alongside other local elections across the United Kingdom. One third of councillors (32) on Manchester City Council were elected, along with a mid-term vacancy in the Ardwick ward.

Quick Facts 33 of 96 seats on Manchester City Council 49 seats needed for a majority, Turnout ...

2023 Manchester City Council election

← 2022

4 May 2023

2024 →

33 of 96 seats on Manchester City Council
49 seats needed for a majority

Turnout

96,219

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Bev Craig	Astrid Johnson	John Leech
Party	Labour	Green	Liberal Democrats
Last election	30 (65.8%)	1 (11.4%)	1 (12.6%)
Seats before	91	3	2
Seats won	30	1	2
Seats after	88	4	4
Seat change	3	1	2
Popular vote	62,003	13,467	11,657
Percentage	64.6%	14.0%	12.2%
Swing	0.35

Map of the wards of Manchester City Council coloured by winning party

Leader before election

Bev Craig
Labour

Leader after election

Bev Craig
Labour

Labour retained its majority on the council.^[1]^[2]

Background

History

The Local Government Act 1972 created a two-tier system of metropolitan counties and districts covering Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, the West Midlands, and West Yorkshire starting in 1974. Manchester was a district of the Greater Manchester metropolitan county.^[3] The Local Government Act 1985 abolished the metropolitan counties, with metropolitan districts taking on most of their powers as metropolitan boroughs. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority was created in 2011 and began electing the mayor of Greater Manchester from 2017, which was given strategic powers covering a region coterminous with the former Greater Manchester metropolitan county.^[4]

Since its formation, Manchester City Council has continuously been under Labour control. In the most recent council election in 2022, Labour won 30 of the 32 seats up for election with 65.4% of the vote, with the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party each winning one seat with 12.7% and 11.4% of the vote across the borough respectively. The Conservatives received 8.8% of the vote but did not win any seats.

The seats up for re-election in 2023 were those who were elected in 2019.^{[citation needed]}

Changes since the last election

Since the 2022 Manchester City Council election councillor Ekua Bayunu, who was elected as a Labour Party candidate in Hulme in 2021, quit the Labour party and joined the Green party.^[5]

Council term

Bernard Priest (Lab, Ardwick) resigned as a councillor shortly before the election period began; this leads to a combined election where the candidate with the most votes is elected to a full four-year term, and the candidate with the second most votes fills the remainder of the vacated term 2021–24 term.

The following councillors did not stand for re-election:

More information Councillor, Party ...

Councillor		Ward	Held seat since
Bernard Priest^{[lower-alpha 1]}	Labour	Ardwick	1998
Luke Raikes	Labour	Baguley	2012
Williams Jeavons	Labour	Deansgate	2018
Greg Stanton^{[lower-alpha 2]}	Labour	Didsbury West	2019
Sarah Russell	Labour	Northenden	2014
Edward Newman	Labour	Woodhouse Park	2002

Standing down mid-term.
Elected as a Liberal Democrat. Joined the Labour party in 2020.

Electoral process

The council elects its councillors in thirds, with a third being up for election every year for three years, with no election in the fourth year.^[6]^[7] Councillors are elected via first-past-the-post voting, with each ward represented by three councillors, with one elected in each election year to serve a four-year term.^{[citation needed]}

All registered electors (British, Irish, Commonwealth and European Union citizens) living in Manchester aged 18 or over will be entitled to vote in the election. People who live at two addresses in different councils, such as university students with different term-time and holiday addresses, are entitled to be registered for and vote in elections in both local authorities. Voting in-person at polling stations will take place from 07:00 to 22:00 on election day, and voters will be able to apply for postal votes or proxy votes in advance of the election.^{[citation needed]}

Council composition

After the 2022 election, the composition of the council was:

↓
92	2	2
Labour	LD	GP

Immediately prior to the election, the composition of the council was:

↓
90	3	2	1
Labour	GP	LD	^{[lower-alpha 1]}

vacancy

Following the election result, the composition of the council became:

↓
88	4	4
Labour	Grn	LD

Results

Summary change in vote share compared to the 2022 election. Change in number of seats compared to the most recent sitting councillor for each ward before the election. The result for the Ardwick ward has been normalised to account for the 2nd vacancy being filled in this election.

More information Manchester City Council, Party ...

Manchester City Council
Party		This election			Full council			This election
Party		Seats	Net	Seats %	Other	Total	Total %	Votes	Votes %	+/−
	Labour	30/33	3	90.6	59	88	91.67	62,003	64.60	1.19
	Liberal Democrats	2/33	2	6.3	2	4	4.17	11,656	12.15	0.49
	Green	1/33	1	3.1	3	4	4.17	13,467	14.03	2.62
	Conservative	0/33		0.0	0	0	0.0	7,001	7.29	1.48
	Independent	0/5		0.0	0	0	0.0	830	0.86	0.31
	Reform UK	0/2		0.0	0	0	0.0	213	0.22	0.19
	Women's Equality	0/1		0.0	0	0	0.0	96	0.10	0.09
	Monster Raving Loony	0/1		0.0	0	0	0.0	57	0.06
	Northern Heart	0/1		0.0	0	0	0.0	34	0.04
	SDP	0/1		0.0	0	0	0.0	26	0.03	0.01

For the per-ward results, asterisks denote incumbent Councillors seeking re-election. Unless otherwise noted, the councillors seeking re-election were elected in 2019; changes in vote share are therefore compared to 2019.