2007 United Kingdom local elections
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All 36 metropolitan boroughs, 45 out of 46 unitary authorities, 231 out of 238 English districts, all 32 Scottish council areas, and 3 directly elected mayors | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results. |
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[1] 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.
Summary of 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.[2] 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 | ||
Conservative | 165 | 39 | 5,458 | 932 | |
Liberal Democrats | 23 | 4 | 2,337 | 255 | |
Labour | 36 | 18 | 2,225 | 665 | |
SNP | 0 | 1 | 363 | 182 | |
Residents | 1 | 67 | 19 | ||
Green | 0 | 62 | 17 | ||
BNP | 0 | 10 | 1 | ||
Liberal | 0 | 9 | 1 | ||
Scottish Green | 0 | 8 | 8 | ||
Mebyon Kernow | 0 | 7 | 1 | ||
UKIP | 0 | 5 | 1 | ||
Health Concern | 0 | 4 | 1 | ||
Respect | 0 | 3 | |||
Solidarity | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
Scottish Socialist | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
Socialist Alternative | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
Other | 4 | 949 | 162 | ||
No overall control | 85 | 27 | n/a | n/a |
Source BBC BBC NEWS | Politics | Vote 2007 | English councils map
England
All 36 English Metropolitan borough councils had one third of their seats up for election.
Whole council
In 25 English unitary authorities the whole council was up for election.
Third of council
In 20 English unitary authorities one third of the council was up for election.
District councils
Whole council
In 153 English district authorities the whole council was up for election.[3]
Council | Previous control | Result | Details | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Allerdale | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Alnwick | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Arun | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Ashfield | Labour | No overall control | Details | ||
Ashford | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Aylesbury Vale | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Babergh | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Berwick-upon-Tweed | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Blaby | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Blyth Valley | Labour | Labour hold | Details | ||
Bolsover | Labour | Labour hold | Details | ||
Boston | No overall control | Boston Bypass Independents gain | Details | ||
Braintree | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
Breckland | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Bridgnorth | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Broadland | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Bromsgrove | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Broxtowe | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Canterbury | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
Caradon | No overall control | Liberal Democrats gain | Details | ||
Carrick | Liberal Democrats | No overall control | Details | ||
Castle Morpeth | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Charnwood | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
Chelmsford | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Chester-le-Street | Labour | Labour hold | Details | ||
Chesterfield | Liberal Democrats | Liberal Democrats hold | Details | ||
Chichester | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Chiltern | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Christchurch | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Copeland | Labour | Labour hold | Details | ||
Corby | Labour | Labour hold | Details | ||
Cotswold | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Dacorum | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Dartford | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
Derbyshire Dales | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Derwentside | Labour | Labour hold | Details | ||
Dover | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
Durham | Liberal Democrats | Liberal Democrats hold | |||
Easington | Labour | Labour hold | Details | ||
Eastbourne | Conservative | Liberal Democrats gain | Details | ||
East Cambridgeshire | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
East Devon | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
East Dorset | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
East Hampshire | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
East Hertfordshire | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
East Lindsey | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
East Northamptonshire | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
East Staffordshire | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Eden | Independent | No overall control | Details | ||
Epsom and Ewell | Residents Association | Residents Association hold | Details | ||
Erewash | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
Fenland | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Forest Heath | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Forest of Dean | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
Fylde | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Gedling | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
Gravesham | Labour | Conservative gain | Details | ||
Guildford | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Hambleton | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Harborough | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
High Peak | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
Hinckley and Bosworth | Conservative | Liberal Democrats gain | Details | ||
Horsham | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Kennet | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Kerrier | Independent | No overall control | Details | ||
Kettering | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
King's Lynn and West Norfolk | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Lancaster | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Lewes | Liberal Democrats | Liberal Democrats hold | Details | ||
Lichfield | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Lincoln | Labour | Conservative gain | Details | ||
Maldon | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Malvern Hills | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
Mansfield | Independent | Independent hold | Details | ||
Melton | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Mendip | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Mid Bedfordshire | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Mid Devon | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Mid Suffolk | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
Mid Sussex | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
New Forest | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Newark and Sherwood | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
North Cornwall | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
North Devon | Liberal Democrats | Conservative gain | Details | ||
North Dorset | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
North East Derbyshire | Labour | Labour hold | Details | ||
North Hertfordshire | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
North Kesteven | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
North Norfolk | Liberal Democrats | Liberal Democrats hold | Details | ||
North Shropshire | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
North Warwickshire | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
North West Leicestershire | Labour | Conservative gain | Details | ||
North Wiltshire | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
Northampton | No overall control | Liberal Democrats gain | Details | ||
Oadby and Wigston | Liberal Democrats | Liberal Democrats hold | Details | ||
Oswestry | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
Restormel | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Ribble Valley | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Richmondshire | Independent | No overall control | Details | ||
Rother | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Rushcliffe | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Ryedale | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Salisbury | Conservative | No overall control | Details | ||
Scarborough | Conservative | No overall control | Details | ||
Sedgefield | Labour | Labour hold | Details | ||
Sedgemoor | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Selby | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Sevenoaks | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Shepway | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
South Bucks | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
South Derbyshire | Labour | Conservative gain | Details | ||
South Hams | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
South Holland | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
South Kesteven | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
South Norfolk | Liberal Democrats | Conservative gain | Details | ||
South Northamptonshire | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
South Oxfordshire | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
South Ribble | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
South Shropshire | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
South Somerset | Liberal Democrats | Liberal Democrats hold | Details | ||
South Staffordshire | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Spelthorne | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
St Edmundsbury | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Stafford | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Staffordshire Moorlands | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
Suffolk Coastal | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Surrey Heath | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Taunton Deane | Conservative | No overall control | Details | ||
Teesdale | Independent | Independent hold | Details | ||
Teignbridge | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Tendring | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Test Valley | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Tewkesbury | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Thanet | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Tonbridge and Malling | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Torridge | Independent | No overall control | Details | ||
Tynedale | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Uttlesford | Liberal Democrats | Conservative gain | Details | ||
Vale of White Horse | Liberal Democrats | Liberal Democrats hold | Details | ||
Vale Royal | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Wansbeck | Labour | Labour hold | Details | ||
Warwick | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
Waverley | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
Wealden | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Wear Valley | Labour | No overall control | Details | ||
Wellingborough | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
West Devon | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
West Dorset | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
West Somerset | Conservative | Independent gain | Details | ||
West Wiltshire | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
Wychavon | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Wycombe | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Wyre | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details |
Third of council
In 78 English district authorities one third of the council was up for election.
Council | Previous control | Result | Details | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Amber Valley | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Barrow-in-Furness | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Basildon | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Basingstoke and Deane | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Bassetlaw | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Bedford | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Brentwood | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Broxbourne | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Burnley | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Cambridge | Liberal Democrats | Liberal Democrats hold | Details | ||
Cannock Chase | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Carlisle | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Castle Point | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Cherwell | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Chester | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
Chorley | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Colchester | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Congleton | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Craven | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Crawley | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Crewe and Nantwich | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Daventry | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Eastleigh | Liberal Democrats | Liberal Democrats hold | Details | ||
Ellesmere Port and Neston | Labour | Labour hold | Details | ||
Elmbridge | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Epping Forest | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Exeter | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Gloucester | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Great Yarmouth | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Harlow | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Harrogate | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Hart | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Havant | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Hertsmere | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Huntingdonshire | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Hyndburn | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Ipswich | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Macclesfield | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Maidstone | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Mole Valley | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Newcastle-under-Lyme | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Norwich | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Pendle | Liberal Democrats | Liberal Democrats hold | Details | ||
Penwith | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Preston | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Purbeck | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Redditch | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Reigate and Banstead | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Rochford | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Rossendale | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Rugby | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
Runnymede | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Rushmoor | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Shrewsbury and Atcham | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
South Bedfordshire | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
South Cambridgeshire | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
South Lakeland | Liberal Democrats | Liberal Democrats hold | Details | ||
St Albans | Liberal Democrats | No overall control | Details | ||
Stevenage | Labour | Labour hold | Details | ||
Stratford-on-Avon | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Stroud | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Swale | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Tamworth | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Tandridge | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Three Rivers | Liberal Democrats | Liberal Democrats hold | Details | ||
Tunbridge Wells | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Watford | Liberal Democrats | Liberal Democrats hold | Details | ||
Waveney | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Welwyn Hatfield | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
West Lancashire | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
West Lindsey | Liberal Democrats | Liberal Democrats hold | Details | ||
West Oxfordshire | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Weymouth and Portland | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details | ||
Winchester | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Woking | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details | ||
Worcester | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Worthing | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details | ||
Wyre Forest | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details |
Mayoral elections
Council | Independent | Conservative | Labour | Liberal Democrat | Green | Elected | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bedford | 15,967 | 10,710 | 4,757 | 10,551 | 1,538 | Frank Branston | Independent hold |
Mansfield | 13,756 | 2,770 | 8,774 | 1,944 | 1,489 | Tony Egginton | Independent hold |
Middlesbrough | 17,455 | 1,733 | 3,539 | 7,026 | no candidate | Ray Mallon | Independent 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.[4]
Summary of results
Party | Councils - majority | Councils - in coalition/minority | Councillors | |
SNP | 0 | 11 | 363 | |
Labour | 2 | 11 | 348 | |
Liberal Democrats | 0 | 12 | 166 | |
Conservative | 0 | 8 | 143 | |
Scottish Green | 0 | 0 | 8 | |
Scottish Socialist Party | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
Solidarity | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
Other | 3 | 9 | 193 | |
No overall control | 27 | - | - |
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.[5]
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
- ^ "Teenagers to run as councillors". BBC News. 4 April 2007.
- ^ "Council polls could be scrapped". BBC News. 8 February 2006.
- ^ a b Young, Ross (19 July 2007). "Local and Mayoral elections 2007" (PDF). House of Commons Library. SOCIAL AND GENERAL STATISTICS SECTION (RESEARCH PAPER 07/47). Retrieved 17 December 2023.
- ^ "Electoral Panorama / Panorama Electoral". electionresources.org.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 September 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Labour minority control. The council was previously run by a coalition of Scottish Liberal Democrats, Independents and the SNP.
- ^ Liberal Democrats lack a majority (LD: 12 councillors; opposition: 12 councillors)
- ^ Labour lack a majority, after by election loss to Scottish National Party (Lab: 29 councillors; opposition: 29 councillors)
- ^ Labour minority administration
- ^ Conservative and Unionist control, on a cut of the cards (Con: 15 councillors; opposition: 15 councillors)
- ^ Labour lack a majority, after by election loss to Scottish National Party (Lab: 11 councillors; opposition: 11 councillors)
External links
- Results table (BBC News)
- Overview of councils up for election Archived 12 January 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- CityMayors article
- Young candidates article
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