2025 local elections handbook
Scheduled council elections held between April and June 2025, from our ward results. This is the final edition. Where our results for a council are incomplete, its figures will be too low.
- Councils
- 40
- Wards
- 1,416
- Seats
- 1,664
- Candidates
- 8,207
- Votes
- 5,506,276
Seats won by party
| Party | Seats | Candidates | Votes | Vote share* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reform UK | 681 | 1,640 | 1,774,616 | 32.5% | |
| Liberal Democrats | 371 | 1,403 | 863,753 | 15.8% | |
| Conservative | 320 | 1,603 | 1,259,935 | 23.1% | |
| Labour | 100 | 1,549 | 833,483 | 15.3% | |
| Independent | 97 | 489 | 210,348 | 3.9% | |
| Green | 79 | 1,191 | 448,259 | 8.2% | |
| Mebyon Kernow - The Party for Cornwall | 3 | 18 | 6,524 | 0.1% | |
| Wycombe Independents | 2 | 2 | 2,326 | 0.0% | |
| Our West Lancashire | 2 | 4 | 4,066 | 0.1% | |
| Independent Network | 1 | 1 | 1,078 | 0.0% | |
| Henley Residents Group | 1 | 1 | 1,483 | 0.0% | |
| Lincolnshire Independents Lincolnshire First | 1 | 10 | 23,989 | 0.4% | |
| Broxtowe Independent Group | 1 | 4 | 4,466 | 0.1% | |
| Ashfield Independents | 1 | 10 | 10,586 | 0.2% | |
| Broxtowe Alliance | 1 | 6 | 6,218 | 0.1% |
*Note on vote share: this is each party's share of the votes cast in the wards we hold for 2025. 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 2025. Built from 1,394 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| REF | 30.0% | 32% | |
| LAB | 18.1% | 19% | |
| LD | 17.6% | 16% | |
| CON | 14.2% | 18% | |
| GRN | 9.4% | 7% | |
| IND | 5.0% | — | |
| SNP | 1.7% | — | |
| PC | 0.5% | — |
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 (2)
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 Cambridgeshire and PeterboroughMayor | Paul Bristow Conservative | 60,243 | Ryan Coogan Reform UK | 49,647 |
| Mayor of West of EnglandMayor | Helen Godwin Labour | 51,197 | Arron Fraser Andrew Banks Reform UK | 45,252 |
Councils changing hands (22)
| Council | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Buckinghamshire | Conservative | No overall control |
| Cambridgeshire | No overall control | Liberal Democrats |
| Cornwall | Conservative | No overall control |
| County Durham | No overall control | Reform UK |
| Derbyshire | Conservative | Reform UK |
| Devon | Conservative | No overall control |
| Doncaster | Labour | Reform UK |
| Gloucestershire | Conservative | No overall control |
| Hertfordshire | Conservative | No overall control |
| Kent | Conservative | Reform UK |
| Lancashire | Conservative | Reform UK |
| Leicestershire | Conservative | No overall control |
| Lincolnshire | Conservative | Reform UK |
| Newcastle Upon Tyne | Labour | No overall control |
| North Northamptonshire | Conservative | Reform UK |
| Nottinghamshire | Conservative | Reform UK |
| Oxfordshire | No overall control | Liberal Democrats |
| Shropshire | Conservative | Liberal Democrats |
| Staffordshire | Conservative | Reform UK |
| West Northamptonshire | Conservative | Reform UK |
| Wiltshire | Conservative | No overall control |
| Worcestershire | Conservative | No overall control |
Every council (40)
| Council | Wards | Seats | Before | After |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buckinghamshire | 49 | 97 | Conservative | No overall control |
| Cambridgeshire | 59 | 61 | No overall control | Liberal Democrats |
| Cheshire West & Chester | 1 | 2 | Labour | Labour |
| City Of London | 1 | 0 | Other | Other |
| City of London Corporation | 1 | 3 | — | Independent |
| Cornwall | 87 | 87 | Conservative | No overall control |
| County Durham | 51 | 98 | No overall control | Reform UK |
| Derbyshire | 62 | 62 | Conservative | Reform UK |
| Devon | 58 | 60 | Conservative | No overall control |
| Doncaster | 22 | 57 | Labour | Reform UK |
| Erewash | 2 | 2 | Labour | Labour |
| Gloucestershire | 55 | 55 | Conservative | No overall control |
| Hertfordshire | 78 | 78 | Conservative | No overall control |
| Isles of Scilly | 5 | 16 | Other | Other |
| Kent | 70 | 81 | Conservative | Reform UK |
| Lancashire | 82 | 84 | Conservative | Reform UK |
| Leicestershire | 53 | 55 | Conservative | No overall control |
| Leicestershire County Council | 1 | 1 | — | — |
| Lincolnshire | 70 | 70 | Conservative | Reform UK |
| Mayor of Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council | 1 | 1 | — | — |
| Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority | 1 | 1 | — | — |
| Mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire Combined Authority | 1 | 1 | — | — |
| Mayor of North Tyneside Council | 1 | 1 | — | — |
| Newcastle Upon Tyne | 1 | 1 | Labour | No overall control |
| North Devon | 1 | 1 | Liberal Democrats | Liberal Democrats |
| North Northamptonshire | 31 | 66 | Conservative | Reform UK |
| Northumberland | 69 | 69 | No overall control | No overall control |
| Northumberland County Council | 3 | 0 | — | — |
| Nottinghamshire | 56 | 64 | Conservative | Reform UK |
| Oxford | 8 | 8 | No overall control | No overall control |
| Oxfordshire | 56 | 56 | No overall control | Liberal Democrats |
| Shropshire | 72 | 74 | Conservative | Liberal Democrats |
| South Oxfordshire | 4 | 4 | Liberal Democrats | Liberal Democrats |
| Staffordshire | 62 | 62 | Conservative | Reform UK |
| Stratford-On-Avon | 1 | 1 | Liberal Democrats | Liberal Democrats |
| Warwickshire | 57 | 57 | Conservative | Conservative |
| West Lancashire | 1 | 1 | Labour | Labour |
| West Northamptonshire | 32 | 72 | Conservative | Reform UK |
| Wiltshire | 98 | 98 | Conservative | No overall control |
| Worcestershire | 53 | 57 | Conservative | No overall control |
See also Election Health for 2025's competitiveness figures and Council Control.
