Results have started rolling in for this year’s local elections as voters across the country await verdicts from contests across England, Scotland and Wales today.
Contests have taken place in 136 local authorities across England, including some of the largest cities and the whole of London. A mix of urban authorities and rural districts also held elections, along with several county councils.
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It is the largest set of local elections in the country for three years, and marks a key test for all political parties.
At the same time, elections have been held in Scotland for the Scottish parliament and in Wales for members of the Senedd. Results for these are expected later in the day on Friday.
Most of these seats were last up for election in 2022, at a time when the then-Conservative government, led by former prime minister Boris Johnson, was trailing Labour in the opinion polls and was losing support in the wake of the Partygate scandal.
This was reflected in the results of the 2022 local elections, which saw Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Greens all make gains at the Tories’ expense.
Reform UK contested only a small number of council seats in 2022 and won just two.
It was a very different picture at last year’s local elections, when Nigel Farage’s party picked up 677 seats to bring its total councillor count at the time to 804. The Conservatives were the biggest losers of the night, dropping 674 seats, while Labour lost 187.
Mr Farage will be hoping for similar success at this year’s contests, as polling suggest that both the ‘big two’ parties are set to suffer massive losses once again.
More than half of the seats up for grabs this year are being defended by Labour, reflecting the party’s current strength in London and in Metropolitan boroughs, while just over a quarter are Conservative defences.
This marks a change from the 2025 elections, when the Tories were defending the greatest number of council seats with most of those contests being for county councils where the party was dominant.
Of the 5,013 English council seats being contested this year, Labour is defending 2,557, the Conservatives 1,362, the Liberal Democrats 684 and other parties 410 (including independents).
In Scotland, a total of 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament were up for grabs, with voters electing 73 constituency representatives and a further 56 MSPs via eight regional lists.
Meanwhile, the Senedd elections will see 96 members elected to the Welsh Parliament. Announcements of results for both of these contests are expected to begin on Friday afternoon.
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