2016 United Kingdom local elections

← 2015 5 May 2016 2017 →
124 of 405 councils inEngland 4 directly elected mayors 40 Police and Crime Commissioners
Turnout	34%[1]
First party Second party   Leader Jeremy Corbyn David Cameron Party Labour Conservative Leader since 12 September 2015 6 December 2005 Seats before 6,884 seats[2] 114 councils 8,779 seats 192 councils Projected vote share[a] 31% 2% 30% 5% Seats won (2016) 1,326 48 councils 842 38 councils Councillors (after) 6,881[3] 114 councils 8,707 191 councils Net change (notional) 18 0 councils 48 1 councils   Third party Fourth party   Leader Tim Farron Nigel Farage Party Liberal Democrats UKIP Leader since 16 July 2015 5 November 2010 Seats before 1,812 seats 6 councils 490 seats 1 council Projected vote share[a] 15% 4% 12% 1% Seats won (2016) 378 4 councils 58 0 councils Councillors (after) 1,834 7 councils 495 1 council Net change (notional) 45 1 councils 25 0 councils
Council control following the 2016 local elections in England.   Conservative   Labour   Liberal Democrats   No overall control   No election in 2016

The2016 United Kingdom local elections held on Thursday 5 May 2016 were a series of local elections which were held in 124 local councils and also saw 4 mayoral elections inEngland which also coincided with elections to theScottish Parliament, theWelsh Assembly, theNorthern Ireland Assembly, theLondon Assembly, theLondon mayoral election and theEngland and Wales Police and crime commissioners.^[4][5] By-elections for the Westminster seats ofOgmore andSheffield Brightside and Hillsborough were also held. These proved to beDavid Cameron's last local elections as leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister as he resigned two months later following the defeat of Remain in thereferendum on Britain's continuing membership of the European Union which was held seven weeks later.

Full results as reported by BBC News.^[6]

Party		Councillors				Councils
		Won[7]	After[8]	+/-[b]	Won	After	+/-
	Conservative	842	8,707	48	38	191	1
	Labour	1,326	6,881	18	48	114
	Liberal Democrats	378	1,834	45	4	7	1
	UKIP	58	495	25	0	1
	SNP	—N/a[c]	418		0	2
	Green	45	177	3	0	0
	Plaid Cymru	—N/a[d]	171		0	0
	Independent	120	1,545	1	0	6
	No overall control	—N/a			24	85
Total		2,769	20,228	—	114	405	—

As these local elections were held in 124 English councils, out of 418 in the whole of the UK, theBBC calculated a Projected National Vote Share (PNV), which aims to assess what the council results indicate the UK-wide vote would be "if the results were repeated at a general election".^[9]

The BBC's Projected National Vote Share was 31% forLabour, 30% for theConservatives, 15% for theLiberal Democrats and 12% forUKIP.^[9] These results are included in the infobox for this article. Longstanding elections analystsColin Rallings andMichael Thrasher of Plymouth University estimate a National Equivalent Vote (NEV) share, and in 2016 put Labour on 33%, the Conservatives on 31%, the Liberal Democrats on 14% and UKIP on 12%.^[10]

David Cameron celebrated the results, stating that his party did well despite being in office for six years up to that point.^[11] The results were viewed as mixed or poor for Labour.Jeremy Corbyn claimed that the results were better than anticipated, given that Labour was expected to lose more councillors and councils.^[12][13][14] The Liberal Democrats failed to win back areas where they lost seats in prior elections, though they did make a slight recovery after heavy losses in 2015. UKIP was also assessed to have underperformed, given its association with the upcoming2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.^[15]

Three of 36metropolitan boroughs had all of their seats up for election.^[16]

32 of 36 metropolitan boroughs had one-third of their seats up for election.^[16]

3unitary authorities had all of their seats up for election.^[16]

16 unitary authorities had one-third of their seats up for election.^[16]

12District Councils had all of their seats up for election.^[16]

7non-metropolitan district councils had half of their seats up for election.^[16]

51 non-metropolitan district councils had one-third of their seats up for election.^[16]

Four direct mayoral elections were held.^[16]

40 elections for Police and Crime Commissioners were held.

• 2016 London Assembly election
• 2016 London mayoral election
• 2016 National Assembly for Wales election
• 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly election
• 2016 Scottish Parliament election
• 2016 Ogmore by-election
• 2016 Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough by-election

• Local Government Political ControlArchived 7 January 2019 at theWayback Machine

• 2016 United Kingdom local elections
• 2016 elections in the United Kingdom
• Premiership of David Cameron
• Jeremy Corbyn

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