2016 local elections handbook
Scheduled council elections held between April and June 2016, from our ward results. This is the final edition. Where our results for a council are incomplete, its figures will be too low.
- Councils
- 181
- Wards
- 2,261
- Seats
- 2,988
- Candidates
- 11,596
- Votes
- 9,102,528
Seats won by party
| Party | Seats | Candidates | Votes | Vote share* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | 1,376 | 2,746 | 3,367,075 | 37.8% | |
| Conservative | 883 | 2,746 | 2,465,846 | 27.7% | |
| Liberal Democrats | 381 | 1,842 | 1,139,526 | 12.8% | |
| UK Independence Party (UKIP) | 61 | 1,509 | 1,003,675 | 11.3% | |
| Independent | 55 | 322 | 376,841 | 4.2% | |
| Green | 48 | 1,566 | 434,073 | 4.9% | |
| Loughton | 7 | 7 | 5,217 | 0.1% | |
| SNP | 7 | 29 | 62,804 | 0.7% | |
| Molesey | 5 | 5 | 7,740 | 0.1% | |
| HWWGRA | 3 | 3 | 5,717 | 0.1% | |
| LIB | 3 | 14 | 7,316 | 0.1% | |
| CIIP | 3 | 3 | 1,883 | 0.0% | |
| IndNwk | 2 | 4 | 4,650 | 0.1% | |
| WSTGI | 1 | 3 | 3,066 | 0.0% | |
| FRAG | 1 | 1 | 1,427 | 0.0% |
*Note on vote share: this is each party's share of the votes cast in the wards we hold for 2016. It is not an estimate for the whole country: many councils did not vote this year, some of our results may be missing, and in wards with several seats each voter had several votes.
National Equivalent Vote — our estimate
What each party's share might have been if the whole of Great Britain had voted in 2016. Built from 2,177 wards that did vote, compared like-for-like with the last time each ward voted, then carried across the places that didn't vote using the change in their region. Shown beside the Elections Centre's published figure where we hold it.
| Party | Our estimate | Elections Centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| CON | 31.3% | 32% | |
| LAB | 29.0% | 33% | |
| LD | 14.5% | 14% | |
| UK Independence Party (UKIP) | 10.1% | 12% | |
| IND | 6.0% | — | |
| GRN | 5.5% | — | |
| SNP | 1.3% | — | |
| PC | 0.6% | — |
How far to trust this: it is an estimate, not a count. It uses each party's best-placed candidate in each ward, so multi-seat wards don't inflate anyone. Parties that stand in only a few places stay in those places. Where our ward records are incomplete for a year, the estimate is less reliable — compare it with the Elections Centre column.
Mayors and police and crime commissioners (41)
Winner, runner-up and first-round votes. Where a second count was held, its votes are shown in brackets.
| Post | Winner | Votes | Runner-up | Votes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mayor of LondonMayor | Sadiq Khan Labour | 1,148,716 (1,310,143) | Zac Goldsmith Conservative | 909,755 (994,614) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Avon and Somerset ConstabularyPCC | Sue Mountstevens Independent | 82,708 (118,547) | Kerry Barker Labour | 75,538 (100,565) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Bedfordshire PolicePCC | Kathryn Holloway Conservative | 39,288 (47,397) | Olly Martins Labour | 37,853 (44,514) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Cambridgeshire ConstabularyPCC | Jason Ablewhite Conservative | 63,614 (81,581) | Dave Baigent Labour | 54,426 (72,480) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Cheshire ConstabularyPCC | David Keane Labour | 72,497 (84,601) | John Dwyer Conservative | 69,322 (81,652) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Cleveland PolicePCC | Barry Coppinger Labour | 32,733 (41,337) | Matthew Vickers Conservative | 18,196 (25,229) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Cumbria ConstabularyPCC | Peter McCall Conservative | 32,569 (41,345) | Reg Watson Labour | 22,768 (30,437) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Derbyshire ConstabularyPCC | Hardyal Dhindsa Labour | 66,925 (78,858) | Richard Bright Conservative | 61,741 (77,245) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon & Cornwall PolicePCC | Alison Hernandez Conservative | 69,354 (91,036) | Gareth Derrick Labour | 66,519 (87,242) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset PolicePCC | Martyn Underhill Independent | 47,738 (66,660) | Andrew Graham Conservative | 37,089 (44,458) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Durham ConstabularyPCC | Ron Hogg Labour | 50,915 | Peter Cuthbertson Conservative | 18,797 |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Dyfed-Powys PolicePCC | Dafydd Llywelyn Plaid Cymru | 52,469 (75,158) | Christopher Salmon Conservative | 47,093 (59,302) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Essex PolicePCC | Roger Hirst Conservative | 110,858 (135,948) | Bob Spink UK Independence Party (UKIP) | 80,832 (103,792) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Gloucestershire ConstabularyPCC | Martin Surl Independent | 57,447 (78,592) | Will Windsor-Clive Conservative | 49,965 (54,567) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Gwent PolicePCC | Jeff Cuthbert Labour | 76,893 (96,030) | Louise Brown Conservative | 50,985 (59,931) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire ConstabularyPCC | Michael Lane Conservative | 113,717 (153,990) | Robin Price Labour | 63,747 (87,744) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Hertfordshire ConstabularyPCC | David Lloyd Conservative | 100,262 (126,069) | Kerry Pollard Labour | 64,978 (85,854) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Humberside PolicePCC | Keith Hunter Labour | 62,010 (76,128) | Matthew Grove Conservative | 40,925 (51,757) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Kent PolicePCC | Matthew Scott Conservative | 88,396 (104,558) | Henry Bolton UK Independence Party (UKIP) | 73,299 (87,978) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Lancashire ConstabularyPCC | Clive Grunshaw Labour | 132,261 (152,714) | Andy Pratt Conservative | 96,746 (118,941) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Leicestershire PolicePCC | Baron Bach Willy Bach Labour | 67,991 (78,188) | Neil Bannister Conservative | 46,958 (58,305) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Lincolnshire PolicePCC | Marc Jones Conservative | 39,441 (48,033) | Victoria Ayling UK Independence Party (UKIP) | 28,583 (37,420) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside PolicePCC | Jane Kennedy Labour | 186,661 | David Burgess-Joyce Conservative | 54,000 |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Norfolk ConstabularyPCC | Lorne Green Conservative | 42,928 (60,061) | Chris Jones Labour | 37,141 (50,287) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for North Wales PolicePCC | Arfon Jones Plaid Cymru | 67,179 (90,228) | David Taylor Labour | 54,892 (64,864) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire PolicePCC | Julia Mulligan Conservative | 53,078 (65,018) | Steve Howley Labour | 34,351 (44,759) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Northamptonshire PolicePCC | Stephen Mold Conservative | 46,785 (58,175) | Kevin McKeever Labour | 41,015 (49,161) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria PolicePCC | Vera Baird Labour | 180,479 | Stewart Hay Conservative | 58,713 |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Nottinghamshire PolicePCC | Paddy Tipping Labour | 80,926 (89,749) | Anthony Harper Conservative | 48,155 (56,105) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales PolicePCC | Alun Michael Labour | 161,529 (204,874) | Timothy Davies Conservative | 70,799 (96,060) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for South Yorkshire PolicePCC | Alan Billings Labour | 144,978 | Gavin Felton UK Independence Party (UKIP) | 57,062 |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire PolicePCC | Matthew Ellis Conservative | 63,123 (75,000) | George Adamson Labour | 54,753 (66,513) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Suffolk ConstabularyPCC | Tim Passmore Conservative | 57,167 (68,093) | Cath Pickles Labour | 32,268 (41,631) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey PolicePCC | David Munro Conservative | 82,125 (100,122) | Kevin Hurley Zero Tolerance Policing ex Chief | 41,603 (57,681) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Sussex PolicePCC | Katy Bourne Conservative | 114,570 (139,335) | Michael Jones Labour | 61,017 (86,392) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley PolicePCC | Anthony Stansfeld Conservative | 164,554 (202,396) | Laetisia Carter Labour | 138,084 (172,717) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Warwickshire PolicePCC | Philip Seccombe Conservative | 33,895 (43,208) | Julie Jackson Labour | 27,725 (35,108) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for West Mercia PolicePCC | John-Paul Campion Conservative | 64,514 (83,619) | Daniel Walton Labour | 40,870 (55,162) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for West Midlands PolicePCC | David Jamieson Labour | 275,672 (306,578) | Les Jones Conservative | 142,651 (176,922) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for West Yorkshire PolicePCC | Mark Burns-Williamson Labour | 260,271 (295,814) | Allan Doherty Conservative | 119,338 (150,126) |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Wiltshire PolicePCC | Angus Macpherson Conservative | 56,605 (68,622) | Kevin Small Labour | 28,166 (39,365) |
Councils changing hands (7)
| Council | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Bristol, City of | No overall control | Labour |
| Dudley | Labour | No overall control |
| Elmbridge | Conservative | No overall control |
| Peterborough | No overall control | Conservative |
| Rugby | Conservative | No overall control |
| Watford | No overall control | Liberal Democrats |
| Worcester | Conservative | No overall control |
Every council (181)
See also Election Health for 2016's competitiveness figures and Council Control.
