2004 United Kingdom local elections

← 2003 10 June 2004 2005 →
36 metropolitan boroughs, 19 unitary authorities, 89 English districts, and all 22 Welsh principal areas
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Tony Blair Michael Howard Charles Kennedy Party Labour Conservative Liberal Democrats Leader since 21 July 1994 6 November 2003 9 August 1999 Percentage 26% 37% 27% Swing 4% 2% 3% Councils 39 51 9 Councils +/- 8 13 2 Councillors 2,251 1,714 1,279 Councillors +/- 464 288 123
Colours denote council control following elections, as shown in the main table of results.

The2004 United Kingdomlocal elections were held on Thursday 10 June 2004, along with theEuropean elections and theLondonmayoral andAssembly elections.

Thecouncils of all themetropolitan boroughs inEngland and all theprincipal areas of Wales were all up for re-election, along with many otherdistrict andunitary authorities throughout England. No local elections were held inScotland.

These were the first elections sinceMichael Howard became leader of theConservative Party. Howard was looking for a good result in the election to confirm that the Conservatives were back on the road to being able to seriously consider winning thenext general election.

Early results confirmed that theLabour Party was having a bad time. Deputy Prime MinisterJohn Prescott said that, "Iraq was a cloud, or indeed a shadow, over these elections. I am not saying we haven't had a kicking. It's not a great day for Labour".^[1]

However the Conservatives were not making many of the gains that would have indicated a complete change of electoral fortune. The national equivalent share of the vote in the election was found by academics Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher to be 37% to the Conservatives, 27% to theLiberal Democrats and 26% to Labour. For one of the two major parties to come third in local elections was unheard of in the post-1945 period, let alone for a governing party with such a large majority to come third.

Even in theNorth, Labour's traditional heartland, Labour did not do too well, losing control ofDoncaster,Leeds,Newcastle andSt Helens. However, they did pick up several councils, notablyCaerphilly andRhondda Cynon Taff fromPlaid Cymru inWales.

Despite an increase in their vote and number of councillors, theLiberal Democrats saw a net loss of councils to NOC. The loss to the Conservatives of Eastbourne was in a single-seat by-election. This was partially offset by victories inNewcastle upon Tyne andPendle.

TheBritish National Party made a net gain of four seats, and held 14. This left them with a total 21 councillors in the country, including six inBurnley and four inBradford. In the wards they contested, they averaged 16.1% of the vote.

It was to prove a false dawn for the Conservatives; when Britain went to the polls for the following year's general election, Labour was re-elected, although its majority was greatly reduced and the Conservatives did make gains.

This section is empty. You can help byadding to it.(September 2015)

‡ New ward boundaries

‡ New ward boundaries

‡ New ward boundaries

• Local elections 2006. House of Commons Library Research Paper 06/26.

• 2004 United Kingdom local elections
• 2004 elections in the United Kingdom
• Premiership of Tony Blair
• Impacts of the Iraq War

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from November 2021
• Use British English from September 2012
• All Wikipedia articles written in British English
• Articles to be expanded from September 2015
• All articles to be expanded
• Articles with empty sections from September 2015
• All articles with empty sections