3 weeks ago
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Full results tracker
A reminder that you can find all the results from England, Scotland and Wales in our tracker.
You might notice, however, that our results appear slightly differently – or slower – than others’. My colleagues who built the tracker have provided this explanation:
Our results are provided by the Press Association (PA). Numbers for change in seats are calculated against the state of the council or parliament just before this election. Other organisations calculate using the previous election, and this can lead to discrepancies. In Wales, the electoral system is sufficiently different to previous elections that comparison is not given.
Other outlets may also announce individual ward councillor results as they become known, while PA release results for each council only when its full count is complete. PA collates results only for elections that were due in this electoral cycle, meaning there may be council byelection results in other parts of the country that are not included. There are frequent changes in ward boundaries, sometimes accompanied by changes in the number of councillors overall. “Shadow elections” were also held for two new unitary authorities due to be created in Surrey in 2027.
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Conservative MP Lewis Cocking has welcomed a “fantastic set of results” for his party in Broxbourne. Ten out of 30 seats on the council were up for election in the Hertfordshire borough.
The Conservatives suffered a loss to Reform UK, but ultimately won seven seats and have retained control of the authority. Reform UK won two seats and Labour one.
Cocking, who previously led Broxbourne Council, told the Press Association he was “really over the moon”.
We’ve had a fantastic set of results in Broxbourne. I’m really sad we didn’t get three of our candidates over the line.
No change in Hart or Peterborough
In Hart, the council remains under no overall control after Reform took just one seat from the Tories. The Lib Dems remain the largest party.
There is also no overall change in Peterborough.
Labour loses Tamworth, Conservatives hold Broxbourne
More bad news for Labour, which has lost control of Tamworth council after Reform gained nine seats. No party has majority in Tamworth.
In Broxbourne, a true Conservative stronghold, the Tories have retained control.
Mark Brown
Mark Brown is at the Hartlepool council count.
The turnout in Hartlepool was 31.5%, slightly higher than the 28% of the last local election in 2024.
The council has a volatile leadership history with Labour, the Conservatives, Independents and the Brexit Party all having spells in charge in recent decades.
This time the Conservatives were defending two seats, losing both of them to Reform.
In 2021, losing the Hartlepool by-election to the Conservatives made Starmer seriously consider resigning as Labour leader. He saw it as a “personal rejection” but was persuaded not to act hastily.
Could Hartlepool and the wider results in the north east have Starmer once again considering his future? Is Hartlepool setting the north east narrative?
Reform took County Durham last year and is confident of taking Sunderland, which has been Labour since the council was established in its current form in 1973. That important declaration is expected around 4pm.
Reform also hopes to take Gateshead (4pm) and South Tyneside (5.30pm). In Newcastle, the Greens are confident of making significant gains.
Hartlepool MP calls for Starmer to step down as PM after council results
Mark Brown
Mark Brown is at the Hartlepool council count.
Reform are the runaway winners in what could be a catastrophic day for Labour in north east England.
There were 12 seats up for grabs in Hartlepool and Reform won every single one of them. It means Labour, which had a slim majority and was defending six seats, is likely to become the opposition.
Because only a third of the council was being elected, Reform do not have an outright majority. The party will have to make deals with independents in order to take control.
Labour councillors and supporters were noticeably despondent at the count in Brierton sports centre. They knew what was coming. Heavy defeat was in the air.
The town’s Labour MP Jonathan Brash watched his wife Pamela Hargreaves, leader of Hartlepool council, lose her seat.
He told the Guardian he was angry and he repeated his call for Keir Starmer to go.
It has been a terrible night for the Labour party. What I’ve seen here is extraordinarily good, hard-working, Hartlepool people lose their seats. I’ve seen canvassers working night and day in this election and it’s all been for naught and the reason has absolutely nothing to do with them.
They are delivering for this town, they have been delivering for this town and the reality is we need change at the top of the Labour party.
I think the very best thing the prime minister could do now is address the nation tomorrow and set out a timetable for his departure. We can then have an orderly transition, one that, by the way, ensures the full breadth of talent within the Labour party is able to stand, should it want to.
Brash said that was not him backing Andy Burnham – “I don’t know who’s going to put their name forward” – but it was “disgraceful” that the Greater Manchester mayor was blocked from standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election.
He hopes Starmer will go but it was about more than that, he said.
We need bolder policies to actually fix the foundations of our country. We’ve got a huge majority for three years. There are things that we can do that are radical and different and really change the lives of people for the better. It’s time to stop the political cowardice on those big issues and actually go for it and make those massive changes this country needs.
Brash said he expected Labour would now become the opposition in Hartlepool “and we will be holding Reform’s feet to the fire”.
Labour loses control of Hartlepool and Redditch
Two more council declarations, and it’s not good news for Labour.
In Hartlepool, Reform UK has gained 11 seats while Labour has lost six, meaning they have lost control of the council. There is now no party with overall control in Hartlepool.
In Redditch, meanwhile, Reform has taken eight seats from Labour, the Tories, the Greens and an independent. As with Hartlepool, Redditch has moved from Labour controlled to no overall control.
Reform UK are making gains in Wigan, taking six of the first seven results to be declared, with an independent taking the other seat.
However, the result will not affect control of the council as Labour began the night with 62 of the 75 seats, with only 25 seats being contested on the night.
The Press Association reports there were hugs and cheers at the Salford City Council count as Labour held the Eccles ward with 1,663 votes to Reform’s 1,207.
The Green Party claimed the Quays seat from the Liberal Democrats.
Halton held by Labour
Halton is the first full council to be declared. Labour lost 15 seats to Reform but retained control of the council as only a third of the seats were up for election.
Halton is home to the Runcorn and Helsby parliamentary seat, which Reform won from Labour by just six votes in a byelection last year.
See more here:
A bit more from John Curtice, who says results so far show Reform taking an average of about 28% of the vote.
That’s more or less in line with what you would expect given that’s where they are at the moment in the opinion polls.
We are also certainly seeing evidence of Labour’s vote falling away quite heavily, particularly in places where they were previously strong – on average down by 21 points on 2022.
Oh and by the way doing particularly badly in one ward which has a very substantial muslim population. And of course we know that in 2024, Labour’s vote fell very heavily in such places. Here is the first indication that that may well be replicated.
So far not quite so bad for the Conservatives, only down by five points. But it’s down five points on not a particularly good result back in 2022.
Too early to say too much about the Greens except basically, wherever they’re fighting, their vote is up. They’re putting in a credible performance but it’s kind of a good second or a good third.
The first seat at the Salford City Council election count has been taken from Labour by Reform.
In the Walkden North ward, Reform’s candidate Miles Henderson had 1,209 votes to Labour Jack Youd’s 953, with the Green party in third place with 427 votes.
Labour will remain in overall control of the council, whatever the result tonight, where 21 of the 60 seats are up for election.
Full results tracker
A reminder that you can find all the results from England, Scotland and Wales in our tracker.
You might notice, however, that our results appear slightly differently – or slower – than others’. My colleagues who built the tracker have provided this explanation:
Our results are provided by the Press Association (PA). Numbers for change in seats are calculated against the state of the council or parliament just before this election. Other organisations calculate using the previous election, and this can lead to discrepancies. In Wales, the electoral system is sufficiently different to previous elections that comparison is not given.
Other outlets may also announce individual ward councillor results as they become known, while PA release results for each council only when its full count is complete. PA collates results only for elections that were due in this electoral cycle, meaning there may be council byelection results in other parts of the country that are not included. There are frequent changes in ward boundaries, sometimes accompanied by changes in the number of councillors overall. “Shadow elections” were also held for two new unitary authorities due to be created in Surrey in 2027.
Professor John Curtice, perhaps the UK’s best-known pollster, is on the BBC News channel now discussing what early results in England are showing us.
He says that polling prior to this election suggested this would be a difficult night for Labour and the Conservatives, with Reform UK and the Greens making significant gains.
He said:
There’s nothing so far in these early results to against that expectation.
Probably an awful lot of the councillors who get elected tonight will get elected on relatively low shares of the vote.
This is the product of the five-party politics and it will therefore sometimes mean that the person who gains a seat is not necessarily the party who’s made most progress since 2022.
Reform win in first results to be declared
Reform UK has won in one of the first results to be declared, with Philippa Nicholson winning in Brentwood’s Hutton South ward.
She won with 987 votes – 41% ahead of the Conservatives on 785 votes.
Reform also won a seat in Chorley, with Martin Topp securing 778 votes in Chorley East, ahead of Labour on 677.
Here are some more images from counts around England:
The Labour group leader in Harlow, which is expected to be one of the first councils in England to declare its local election result, has said he will “lose some really good councillors, some hard-working councillors, this evening”.
James Griggs told the Press Association that “there’ve been some mistakes” since Labour won the general election – and the Harlow constituency in Essex – almost two years ago.
He said:
It’s easy to focus on one mistake, or one or two mistakes, whatever they may be, and forget about the hundreds of really good bits of delivery from the manifesto from just two years ago.
A lot of the stuff will take a while to come through – it is taking time, there’s a lot of repairing to do after the damage of the 14 years in austerity.
Labour is defending five seats out of 11 up for election in the Harlow Council poll.
On the front page of tomorrow’s Times newspaper is a story claiming that Ed Miliband has “privately suggested to Sir Keir Starmer that he should consider setting out a timeline for his departure”. A spokesperson for the secretary of state for energy and net zero said: “We do not accept this account.”
Asked about it on the BBC, David Lammy warns Labour MPs against playing “pass the parcel” by removing Starmer as PM.
I think Ed Miliband has said that he doesn’t recognise that.
But look, let’s be clear, Keir Starmer won a mandate for five years to deliver for the British people, and now some people are suggesting that we should go away and play pass the parcel.
The Tories did that with leader after leader after leader.
He added:
Yes, there are questions that we have to answer, but there is no, there is no circumstances in which the answer to the questions that the British people are raising is to change the leader yet again.
That is not what is coming up on the doorstep. What they want is delivery. What they want is hope. What they want is change, and that’s what we’ve got to deliver.
Reform UK MP Richard Tice, who it’s rumoured could make an appearance at the count in Newcastle-under-Lyme, has just posted this on X:
Early positive vibes through the day being reinforced by early indicators as counting underway in some areas.
Huge thanks to all our amazing candidates, supporters and activists.
And massive thanks to the huge numbers who have voted Reform.
We are making history.
Neha Gohil
In the run-up to yesterday’s elections, candidates and political parties described a climate of abuse, including death threats and intimidation while campaigning.
Labour’s Dan Jarvis, the security minister, condemned “the rising tide of vile abuse, harassment and intimidation aimed towards elected officials and candidates” online and in person. “Anyone engaging in this sort of behaviour is directly attacking our democracy and we all must do more to stop it becoming normalised,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Green party said some candidates had received death threats or been “yelled at or chased down the street”, and some had withdrawn from campaigning in certain areas due to harassment.
“Anecdotally, this has been the worst year in memory,” the spokesperson said. They said the party had been “a focus at this election more than ever before”, with “some wildly false claims being made about the party and its representatives, which some members of the public have accepted on face value”.
Read more here:
