Local elections in the United Kingdom were held on 7 May 2026 for 5,066 English councillors for 136 English local authorities (all 32 London borough councils, 32 metropolitan boroughs, 18 unitary authorities, 6 county councils, 48 district councils) and six directly elected mayors in England. Most of these seats in England were last up for election in 2022. Some of these elections were postponed from 2025. No local elections were held in the rest of the United Kingdom, other than two by-elections in Wales. The 2026 Scottish Parliament election and 2026 Senedd election were held the same day. The results were a success for both Reform UK and the Green Party (which had the largest increase in vote share), although Reform's vote share dropped since the previous election and the Greens underperformed opinion polls while Labour overperformed prior seat projections, and the vote projections showed a slight recovery for the Conservative Party. The Labour Party continued their collapse in vote share, with little change for the Liberal Democrats. Polling expert John Curtice noted that these results further confirmed the fragmentation of the United Kingdom's politics, as none of the political parties had the significant backing of the public; according to Sky News and the BBC, Reform UK won 26% to 27% of the vote, while most of the other major parties hovered around 20% to 16% of the vote. Reform UK did well in areas with high Brexit support. Labour lost 1,498 councillors and lost control of 38 councils, triggering an internal leadership crisis as some Labour MPs call for Keir Starmer to resign as Prime Minister.
Background
The English Devolution White Paper on 16 December 2024 set out the Labour government's plans for local government reorganisation, involving the remaining two-tier counties of England being abolished with elections to new unitary authorities. Some of the elections scheduled for May 2025 were delayed by a year in order to allow reorganisation to take place. At least 13 of the 21 county councils asked the government to delay their elections. On 5 February 2025, the government announced that elections to nine councils (seven county councils and two unitary authorities) would not take place in 2025 to allow restructuring to take place, with elections to reformed or newly created replacement authorities taking place in 2026. By November 2025, it had been announced that Surrey County Council and the districts included in it would be replaced by new unitary authorities, but the government said that other initially-scheduled 2025 elections would take place in the existing local government structure unless there was "strong justification otherwise", with the process of creating new unitary authorities delayed. Four new combined authority mayoral elections — Greater Essex, Hampshire and the Solent, Norfolk and Suffolk, and Sussex and Brighton — were delayed to 2028, having been originally scheduled for 2026. In December 2025, the Labour government invited 63 councils to raise capacity concerns with ongoing local government reorganisation and request a postponement of their 2026 local elections, after also postponing 6 combined authority mayoral elections that were scheduled to occur on the same day. This move prompted criticism from the Electoral Commission, which questioned the credibility of the reasoning given and said that it caused "unprecedented" uncertainty. The Commission stated that "There is a clear conflict of interest in asking existing Councils to decide how long it will be before they are answerable to voters". Opposition parties also criticised the decision, accusing Labour of denying people the right to vote. By February 2026, the government confirmed that 30 of the 63 council elections had been postponed. However, following a legal challenge by Reform UK, which had made major gains in the previous local elections, the government withdrew on 16 February 2026 its plans to delay elections, after receiving legal advice that the delay could be unlawful; all scheduled elections for 2026, along with the delayed elections from 2025, were now to take place. This is the second set of local elections during the premiership of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and it occurred during a time of Reform UK and the Greens rising sharply in opinion polls. It is the first set of local elections to take place after Zack Polanski became leader of the Green Party.
Campaigns
In England, Labour were defending more than 2,500 seats, the Conservatives over 1,300 and the Liberal Democrats just under 700. Over 25,000 candidates were nominated to stand in the elections. Reform UK, Labour, the Conservatives and the Green party all stood candidates in over 95% of wards, while the Liberal Democrats had candidates in 86%. The only other party with candidates in more than 2% of wards was the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, with 9%.
Labour
On 20 March 2026, General Secretary of Unite Sharon Graham said in a speech to refuse workers at a protest near a waste depot in Tyseley, Birmingham that Labour would be "decimated" in the upcoming local elections and should "hang their heads in shame" over its handling of the Birmingham bin strike. On 30 March 2026, Keir Starmer launched Labour's local election campaign at City of Wolverhampton College, West Midlands. According to ITV, Wolverhampton was at the time one of Labour's safest councils in the region and Keir Starmer denied Birmingham was a "lost cause". The BBC said Labour was going into the elections with consistently low poll ratings.
Conservatives
On 19 March 2026, Kemi Badenoch launched the Conservative campaign for the local elections at an event at Sinfonia Smith Square in Westminster, London. On 6 May 2026, Kemi Badenoch declined to rule out local pacts with Reform in an interview with Sky News, suggesting she would be "happy" to see Conservative and Reform councillors collaborating to deliver right wing policies at a local level. On 7 May 2026, she rowed back on this in an interview with the The Sun, saying "We're not doing deals with Reform. I don't want to see us helping Reform... they're not serious."
Liberal Democrats
On 24 March 2026, Ed Davey launched the Liberal Democrat campaign for the local elections at an event in Lovelace Lodge, in East Horsley, Surrey.
Reform UK
On 1 January 2026, Nigel Farage announced he wanted to go "double or quits" by planning to spend more than £5 million over the following four months in the run-up to the local elections, saying he wanted to spend "every single penny in the bank account" on a mass direct mail and social media campaign. He called the year's set of local elections the "single most important event" before the next general election. In August 2025, Reform UK received a £9 million donation from Christopher Harborne, a British–Thai billionaire businessman. On 10 March 2026, Farage launched Reform's local election campaign at a live-streamed event with 1,500 supporters at GG's restaurant, in Newport, Isle of Wight. This was the first in a planned nationwide series of rallies.
Green Party
Following the election of Zack Polanski as Green Party leader, the party rose sharply in popularity polls. The Green Party launched its local elections campaign on 9 April 2026. The party stated its desire to build and maintain council housing and social homes, pointing to Green-led councils in Lewes and Mid Suffolk, which built hundreds of new council homes in previous years. It also vowed to put pressure on the Labour Party to introduce rent controls and abolish the leasehold system, "freeing five million people from the financial burden of service charges".
Your Party
On 2 April, Your Party announced it would endorse 250 candidates for the local elections, a majority of which would be independent candidates and community groups aligned with the party's platform rather than Your Party candidates. The party said it would target its efforts towards urban areas where support for Labour has weakened, such as Tower Hamlets, Newham, Redbridge, and Bradford. 20 candidates in 17 wards stood under the Your Party name.
Restore Britain
On 1 April 2026, Rupert Lowe announced Restore Britain would not stand candidates for the local elections except in the Great Yarmouth area of the 2026 Norfolk County Council election through Great Yarmouth First, its local affiliate party, stating the election would serve as a testing ground for future Restore Britain candidacies.
Results
Overview
With all 136 councils being declared, Reform UK took 1,453 councillor positions, an increase of 1,451 seats. Labour took 1,068 seats, a decrease of 1,496 seats. The Tories took 801 seats, a decrease of 563 seats. The Liberal Democrats took 844 seats, an increase of 155. The Green Party took 587 seats, an increase of 411. Independent-orientated candidates won 212 seats, up 34 seats. The Residents' Association won 36 seats, a decrease of 31. Labour lost control of 38 councils, Reform UK gained 14 councils, Conservatives lost 6 councils, the Liberal Democrats gained 1 council, Green gained 5 councils, and 23 councils switched to being in a state of no overall control by a political party.
London boroughs
Elections for all councillors in all thirty-two London boroughs have been held in 2026 in line with their normal election schedule. The previous elections to London borough councils were held in 2022, which saw Labour win its second-best result in any London election and the Conservatives return their lowest-ever number of councillors in the capital.
Metropolitan boroughs
There are thirty-six metropolitan boroughs, which are single-tier local authorities. Thirty-two of them had an election in 2026 (Doncaster, Liverpool, Wirral and Rotherham do not). Of these, Birmingham City Council and St Helens Council hold their elections on a four-year cycle from 2022, so were due to hold an election in 2026. In 2025 Barnsley Council held a public consultation regarding the permanent adoption of the whole council election cycle, with the result that Barnsley will hold its elections on a four-year cycle starting from 2026. The remaining twenty-nine councils generally elect a third of their councillors every year for three years with no election in each fourth year, on the same timetable which included elections in 2026. Thirteen of these metropolitan borough councils had all of their councillors up for election in 2026 rather than the usual one-third, following ward boundary changes from their LGBCE electoral review. All thirteen will likely be reverting to thirds in 2027, 2028 and 2030.
Elections for all councillors
Elections for one third of councillors
Other unitary authorities
Most of these unitary authorities elect councillors in thirds, with councillors elected in 2022 up for reelection in 2026. Swindon and Milton Keynes elect councillors by thirds, but had all seats up in 2026 due to new ward boundaries. Thurrock and Isle of Wight both had all-up elections delayed from 2025. East Surrey and West Surrey are both newly-created councils with all councillors to be elected.
Elections for all councillors
Elections for one third of councillors
Mayors
Local authorities
County councils
All of these elections were delayed from 2025.
District councils
Elections for all councillors
Elections for half of councillors
Elections for one third of councillors
Post-election vacancies
A number of seats remained vacant following the elections resulting in a number of post election vacancies:
Moorside ward, Bury Council, death of candidate. Higham Ferrers ward, North Northamptonshire Council, death of candidate. Springfield ward, Essex County Council, death of candidate. Rayleigh West ward, Essex County Council and to the Sweyne Park and Grange ward for Rochford District Council, resignation of elected councillor within days of being elected. St Helens Town Centre, 2026 St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council election, death of candidate Bootle West ward, 2026 Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council election, resignation of elected councillor within days of being elected. Hillingdon West ward, Hillingdon Council, death of candidate. North Acton ward, Ealing Council, resignation of elected councillor. High Fell ward, Gateshead Council, resignation of elected councillor.
Analysis
Fragmentation
Polling expert John Curtice said the results "confirmed the fragmentation of our politics" and that the projection was that Reform UK was ahead of the rest of parties and that each received similar levels of support; he noted that the results were "bleak" for Labour and the political parties do not have the "support of a substantial section of the public". The Projected National Share was calculated to show the support of the parties nationwide. According to Sky News' 2026 National Equivalent Vote, Reform UK won 27% of the vote, with Conservatives with 20%, while Labour won 15%, Greens with 14%, Liberal Democrats with 14%, and Independents with 10%. Sky News added that these results were a Tory improvement from last year's local elections, while Reform "slid backwards slightly". If applied to the House of Commons, it was projected that Reform UK would have 284 seats, Labour 110, Conservatives 96, Liberal Democrats 80, SNP 36, Plaid Cymru 13, Green 13, and others 18. The BBC's Projected National Vote, a similar projection, put party support at Reform with 26%, Greens 18%, Labour 17%, Conservatives 17% and Liberal Democrats 16%.
Performances
Reform UK performed significantly well in areas where the vote for Brexit was high; in areas where Brexit reached over 55% support, Reform UK won 47% of the vote, while they won 36% in areas between 45–55%, and 19% in areas where support for Brexit dipped below 45%. Reform took many seats from Labour in their heartlands. In the case of the Conservatives, they lost the most support in areas that strongly supported them in elections beforehand, losing 12% in areas that gave them 35% of the vote share. The Conservatives performed better than expected, even when suffering extensive losses, which led to Kemi Badenoch claiming that the Conservatives are "coming back". The BBC reported that there was no pressure to challenge Badenoch within leadership, even with these losses, and she also said that "good strategy takes time." Tony Travers, a local government expert at the London School of Economics, said that the "Tories have done surprisingly well" in places such Bexley, Westminster, and Wandsworth. Political analyst Peter Kellner also noted the Tories had a loss rate of 68% in last year's elections, while it was 44% in this year's elections. Political commentor Henry Hill pushed back against these interpretations, saying the Tories are still going backwards and "its councillor base is being eviscerated." The Conservatives saw its fifth consecutive election where it lost seats. The Labour Party suffered large losses in the councils that they controlled. In London, Labour performed particularly poorly. Labour lost control of Lambeth and Lewisham to the Green Party of England and Wales. In Northern England Labour lost seats to Reform UK.
Opinion polls
Seat projections
Aftermath
Labour government
Asked whether he would resign, Keir Starmer called the election results "tough" but said, "I'm not going to walk away from those challenges and plunge the country into chaos". On 9 May 2026, Labour MP and former government minister Catherine West gave an interview in which she called on a cabinet minister to challenge Starmer for the leadership, in default of which she said that she would run against him. Over the weekend following the election results, approximately 30 Labour MPs publicly called for a change within the leadership or a timetable for Starmer to resign as Prime Minister. Many other Labour MPs have also called on Starmer to resign. On 11 May 2026, Catherine West pulled back from her challenge. Joe Morris, a ministerial aide to Wes Streeting, said that "regrettably, it is now clear that the prime minister no longer has the trust or confidence of the public". By that night, six Labour MPs had quit or been replaced as ministerial aides, and 72 MPs had publicly urged Starmer to either resign immediately set a timetable for his departure. On 14 May, the Health Secretary Wes Streeting resigned from the Cabinet saying he had 'lost confidence' in Starmer's leadership. Later on the same day, Labour MP Josh Simons announced his resignation as Member of Parliament, triggering the 2026 Makerfield by-election so that the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham can return to parliament and stand for the Labour leadership.
Opposition parties
Reform
Nigel Farage hailed Reform UK's results during this election as a "historic shift in British politics", also noting that this was a "complete reshaping of British politics in every way." Reform UK's home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, said that if these results were "replicated in the general election, Kemi Badenoch would lose her seat," referring to the current Tory leader.
Green
Zack Polanski, the leader of the Greens Party, said that "two-party politics is not just dying, it is dead and it is buried," adding that he believes that Starmer "needs to go." He also said that "it's very clear that the new politics is the Green Party versus Reform."
2026 Gorton and Denton by-election 2026 Scottish Parliament election 2026 Senedd election Political make-up of local councils in the United Kingdom
Notes
Local authority, combined authority, and county combined authority election cycles in England (gov.uk)
Demo article adapted from 2026 United Kingdom local elections on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License; additional terms may apply.
