Apathy the big winner on election day
Now that the counting is over, we take a look at the key trends emerging from the results on May 2 – and what it could mean heading into a general election
ELECTION day in North Staffordshire on Thursday was – in comparison with other parts of the country – a pretty quiet one.
Labour won a Stoke-on-trent City Council by-election in Meir North, while voters re-elected Conservative Ben Adams into a new term as the county’s police and crime commissioner.
Elsewhere across the country it was a very different situation, with hundreds of different contests held across England and Wales, ranging from the election of local councillors to choosing highprofile mayors.
Now that all the counting is over, here are some of the key trends to emerge from the results – and the statistics behind them:
MAYORS – Labour dominated this year’s mayoral elections, notching up a string of wins by high-profile incumbents, as well as scoring a clean sweep of victories in those parts of the country that were voting for a mayor for the first time.
In five of the 11 contests, Labour not only finished first, but won more than 50 per cent of the vote.
In the West Midlands, Labour’s Richard Parker seized victory from outgoing Conservative mayor Andy Street by 1,508 votes after a recount.
This is no mean feat in elections held under the first-past-the-post system, where having multiple candidates on the ballot often means the winner does not end up with over half of the popular vote.
Indeed, this exact scenario happened in the five other mayoral contests won by Labour candidates.
Elections for the East Midlands, North East and York & North Yorkshire mayors were being held for the first time, meaning there was no incumbency factor to boost the chances of a particular party.
They also took place in areas that will be key Conservative-labour battlegrounds at the next general election – particularly the East Midlands which contains a high number of marginal seats.
Seen in this context, the sole Tory success in this year’s mayoral contests, the re-election of Ben Houchen in Tees Valley, is very much an outlier, though he did – like most of the other incumbents – manage to win more than half of the vote (53.6 per cent).
COUNCILS – Results from the 107 councils in England that held elections on May 2 show Labour won 1,140 seats, an increase of more than 200.
The Liberal Democrats beat the Tories into second place, winning 521 seats, up nearly 100. The Tories are just behind on 513 seats, down nearly 400.
Independent candidates won 228 seats, down 28, the Greens won 181, up 64, while Reform took two, down one.
The new-look council map of England shows a continuation of the trend that emerged in last year’s local elections – a tilt away from the Conservatives and towards councils controlled by other parties or where no party has a majority.
The Tories lost control of 10 local authorities on May 2, shed councillors in many areas, and were wiped out entirely at Castle Point in Essex, Cheltenham,
Sheffield and South Tyneside.
A more localised trend led to Labour losing control of two councils – Oldham in Greater Manchester and Kirklees in West Yorkshire.
In both areas, Independent candidates made gains at Labour’s expense, while in Rochdale in Greater Manchester the Workers Party – led by George Galloway – gained two seats from Labour.
Meanwhile, another result that could have consequences for the general election occurred in Bristol, where the Greens made 10
gains to become the largest party on the council.
POLICE & CRIME COMMISSIONERS –
The Conservatives did extremely well the last time these elections took place in 2021, winning almost all the contests in England and making 10 gains.
This year has proved very different, with Labour gaining 10 PCCS from the Tories across England.
Many of these contests saw very low turnouts, ranging from 32.3 per cent in Northumbria to just 15.5 per cent in Gwent.
This may reflect the fact that for many voters in England and Wales, police commissioners were the only type of election taking place in their area on May 2 – perhaps not as much of a draw as the chance to choose a high-profile mayor or their local councillor.
But the overall picture chimes with the trend evident in the mayoral and council elections – that of the Conservatives losing ground in many areas of the country.