2018 Manchester City Council election

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All 96 seats toManchester City Council 49 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Richard Leese John Leech Party Labour Liberal Democrats Leader since 20 May 1996 5 May 2016 Leader's seat Crumpsall Didsbury West Seats before 95 1 Seats won 94 2 Seat change 1 1 Popular vote 189,401 34,573 Percentage 70.2% 12.8% Swing 6.1% 1.7%
Leader of Largest Party before election Richard Leese Labour Leader of Largest Party after election Richard Leese Labour

Elections toManchester City Council were held on 3 May 2018, as part of the2018 United Kingdom local elections. Although the council is normally elected in thirds, all 96 council seats were up for election due to boundary changes.^[1] Labour retained its near-complete dominance of the council. The sole change was that the Liberal Democrats gained a second seat in Didsbury West.

From 2014 to 2016, Labour were the only party represented on the council. In 2016, former MP John Leech won a seat in Didsbury West and sat as the only opposition councillor for two years.

On 9 April 2018, it was reported that the Labour Party had received formal complaints about Chris Paul, Labour councillor for Withington since 2011. There were social media comments describing women as “cows”, “slobs” and “bitches”, and inciting violence against women.^[2] Greater Manchester Police, The Labour Party and Manchester City Council all launched investigations and Paul eventually apologised. Paul was re-elected in Withington ward with a reduced majority beating Lib Dem candidate April Preston.^[2][3]

Following reports of a last-minute search for eligibile candidates,^[4] the ManchesterConservative Party announced on 10 April, it would be fielding three candidates in all 32 wards within the city.

John Leech launched the Liberal Democrats 'Manchester Together' campaign.^{[citation needed]}

2018 Manchester City Council election
Party		Candidates						Votes
		Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Labour	96	94	0	1	1	97.9	70.00	189,401	5.87
	Liberal Democrats	76	2	1	0	1	2.1	12.78	34,573	1.65
	Conservative	96	0	0	0		0.0	9.30	25,158	2.32
	Green	38	0	0	0		0.0	6.43	17,402	2.43
	Independent	7	0	0	0		0.0	0.64	1,729	0.88
	UKIP	4	0	0	0		0.0	0.27	736	5.93
	Women's Equality	2	0	0	0		0.0	0.23	629	N/A
	TUSC	3	0	0	0		0.0	0.12	337	0.79
	Communist League	1	0	0	0		0.0	0.01	19

Prior to the election, the composition of the council was:

After the election, the composition of the council is:

Asterisks denote incumbent Councillors seeking re-election. All results are listed below:^[5]

• Leech's win in 2016 signified the first gain for any party in Manchester other than Labour for the first time in six years and provided Manchester with its first opposition for two years. After the 2018 election he was selected as Leader of the Opposition.

• Official website

• Manchester City Council elections
• 2018 English local elections

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