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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Paula Surridge

For political parties judging this year’s local election results it’s all about the baseline

A man walks past a railing which has a sign indicating the entrance to a polling station
There are 1,641 council seats, in 37 councils, up for grabs in next week’s local elections. Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/REX/Shutterstock

It’s all about the bass – well at least the baseline. With all political parties likely to win in some places it can be hard to judge what a good night looks like for any party when it comes to local elections.

One way to judge this is to compare with how parties did the last time these contests took place: the baseline. For the seats up for election next week that was 2021 – though many of the places that voted then will not be doing so in 2025. Those elections included places where elections were held over from 2020 because of Covid restrictions; these seats returned to their normal schedule last year.

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