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The2021 United Kingdom local elections were held on Thursday 6 May 2021. More than 145English local councils, around 5,000 councillor seats (including by-elections),[5] thirteendirectly elected mayors in England,[6] and39 police and crime commissioners in England and Wales were contested.[7] On the same day, the2021 Hartlepool by-election took place, and there were also elections to theScottish Parliament (129 seats),Senedd (Welsh Parliament) (60 seats) andLondon Assembly (25 seats), the last in conjunction with theLondon mayoral election.
In March 2020, the government announced that the elections scheduled for 7 May 2020 would be delayed for a year due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. They were now held at the same time as the elections previously scheduled for 2021.[8] The seats up for election were those last contested in2016 and2017. Newunitary authorities to replace the county and district councils in Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire held their inaugural elections this year. Due to the cancellation of the 2020 local elections, these were the first local elections the three main parties contested under the leaderships ofPrime MinisterBoris Johnson of theConservatives,Keir Starmer ofLabour, andEd Davey of theLiberal Democrats.
The governing Conservative Party made significant gains in the elections. Despite initial predictions that the party would perform better in the seats last contested in 2016, but worse in the ones contested in 2017 (when the party benefited from the then-exceptionally high approval ratings ofTheresa May's government in the run-up tothat year's general election), they in fact performed even better in both sets of seats. Many observers attributed their performance to the successful rollout of the country'sCOVID-19 vaccination programme. Conversely, Labour's poor performance was generally ascribed to the party still being viewed by much of the working class as having been discredited by its prioropposition to Brexit, as well as Starmer's perceived opportunism in attacking Johnson over theDowning Street refurbishment controversy. The Liberal Democrats made some minor gains despite a loss in their popular vote share, while theGreen Party made more substantial gains.
Thelocal elections in May 2019 across a majority of councils in England saw theConservative Party suffer significant losses to theLiberal Democrats, who regained councils they lost to the Conservatives in2015. TheLabour Party, despite making some gains, had a net loss of over eighty seats in areas that had traditionally voted for them, particularly to independent candidates. Local elections also took place at the same time inNorthern Ireland, which saw a rise in theAlliance Party's representation across the region. At the2019 European Parliament election, a few weeks later, the Conservatives had their lowest share of the vote in a nationwide election in their history, with theBrexit Party and the Liberal Democrats coming first and second, respectively.
On 12 December 2019, the UK held asnap general election that led to the Conservatives winning a majority of eighty in theHouse of Commons, while Labour had their worst share of the seats since the1935 general election.[9] Following the election result,Jeremy Corbyn announced that he would step down asleader of the Labour Party;[10]Keir Starmerwas elected the new leader on 4 April 2020.[11] The Liberal Democrats also held aleadership election afterJo Swinson lost her seat in the general election;[12] in the interim, the party's deputy leaderEd Davey and party presidentMark Pack acted as co-leaders, and in August Davey was elected as leader.[13]
Prior to the elections,structural changes to local government in England merged some district and county councils intounitary authorities, which meant more power was consolidated; an example isBuckinghamshire Council, which replaced five councils in April 2020. In addition, newcombined authorities (institutions which cover two or more local authorities) are being created, with the electorate of theWest Yorkshire Combined Authority electing theirmayor at this election. Intentions to reorganise councils in Cumbria, North Yorkshire and Somerset caused elections in those areas to be rescheduled for 2022.[14] More combined authorities and significant reorganisations were planned, but in 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down the government's devolution program for England.[15][16]
Apandemic of a new strand of coronavirus spread across the world from February 2020. On 1 March,Health SecretaryMatt Hancock issued a warning that "all options" were being considered if the virus spread further, including delaying the local elections, for the first time since the2001 elections which were delayed by a month due to thefoot-and-mouth outbreak.[17] On 12 March, the Association of Electoral Administrators asked the government to consider postponing the elections should the situation in the UK deteriorate.[18] The same day, theElectoral Commission recommended that the elections be delayed till the autumn.[19]
A day later, Prime MinisterBoris Johnson decided to postpone the 2020 UK local elections until May 2021.[8][20] This decision was legislated for in theCoronavirus Act 2020, which was enacted on 25 March.[21] The bill gave the government the power to postpone any elections, including by-elections, which would otherwise have been held between 16 March 2020 and 5 May 2021.[22] To preserve the four-year electoral cycle, those elected in 2021 would serve three-year terms.[23]
On 4 November 2020, theCabinet Office ruled out any further delays to local elections, after suggestions from some local authorities to defer the elections by a couple of weeks, in order to allow enough time to get the electoral roll in order without having to knock on doors during the second wave of the pandemic.[24] After the country went into a third national lockdown in January 2021, theCounty Councils Network called on Johnson to declare "as soon as possible" whether the elections would go ahead as planned. Suggestions had been put forward include delaying the elections until June or July; delaying them until the Autumn; and conducting them in May but entirely via postal voting.[25][26] On 9 January election officials stated that the local elections will take place as planned. However Johnson said this remains "under review".[27] It was confirmed in February byChloe Smith and theCabinet Office that the elections would in fact take place in line with the government's target to vaccinate all over 50s by the beginning of May.[28]
The Coronavirus Act 2020 also postponed by-elections to fill casual vacancies occurring because a sitting councillor resigned or died.[21] On 15 March 2021, it was reported that more than 260 by-elections would take place alongside the planned council elections.[29]
InBournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, by-elections were held in the wards ofCanford Heath[30] andCommons.[31] Fourby-elections in theLondon Borough of Lewisham were also held.[32]
In January 2021, government guidance on activity during the national lockdown was issued by theMinister of State for the Constitution and Devolution,Chloe Smith, stating that door-to-door campaigning or leafleting by individual political party activists was not possible under the restriction "You must not leave, or be outside of your home except where necessary".[33] Labour suspended leafleting and urged other parties to do the same, but the Liberal Democrats' leaderEd Davey defended the party's leafleting activities, arguing that the party had taken legal advice and that leafleting was allowed under an exemption for volunteer organisations.[34] Rights and democracy groups criticised the restrictions on campaigning, claiming that there was no leafleting ban in the coronavirus regulations and raising concerns it could interfere with the right to free expression and the functioning of democracy.[35]
On 26 February, the UK government said the restrictions in England would be changed to allow door-to-door campaigns from 8 March, and that similar guidance would be published by the Welsh and Scottish governments. Campaigners would be able to deliver leaflets and speak to electors on their doorsteps.[36][37]
Going into the short campaign period, the Conservative Party started to develop a6–7% poll lead on the Labour Party.[29]
On Thursday 11 March, Labour launched its local election campaign, with the party's leaderKeir Starmer, deputy leaderAngela Rayner,Mayor of LondonSadiq Khan,First Minister of WalesMark Drakeford,Scottish Labour leaderAnas Sarwar and West Yorkshire metro-mayor candidateTracy Brabin as speakers. The party focused its election priorities on giving nurses a pay rise.[38][39]
Following thedeath of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, political parties halted campaigning for local and devolved elections for a period of mourning of a few days.[40]
In England, all residents of the areas covered who are 18 years or over and are a British or Irish citizen, a qualifying Commonwealth citizen, or a citizen of the European Union were eligible to vote.[41] A resident can be registered to vote in two local authorities, such as a student living away from home, and they may vote in both.[42] In Wales, all residents who are 16 years or over and are registered to vote, regardless of citizenship, will be eligible to vote.[43] The deadline to be registered to vote in the May 2021 elections is 11:59pm on 19 April 2021.[44]
Because this wave of local elections incorporates different positions, voters used different voting systems to elect politicians. Councillors were elected usingfirst-past-the-post, meaning that the candidate with the most votes in a ward was elected.[42] Councils having "all-up" elections hadblock voting, where voters have a vote for each seat the ward represents and the top candidates are elected. Allmayors of England andPolice and crime commissioners of England and Wales were elected using thesupplementary vote system, where voters select a first and second choice. If no candidate receives 50% of the vote, all except the top two are eliminated. If a voter's first choice candidate is eliminated, and their second choice is for one of the top two, then the second choice is counted.[45][46]
The Welsh and Scottish parliaments used theadditional member system, or AMS. This means voters vote once in a single member constituency and once for party representation in their electoral region.[47] London uses two systems: theMayor of London is elected using the supplementary vote system while theLondon Assembly uses AMS.[45]
| Party | Councillors | Councils | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Won | After[2] | +/-[b] | Won | After | +/- | ||
| Conservative | 2,345 | 7,606 |  235 | 63 | 140 | 13 | |
| Labour | 1,345 | 5,911 |  327 | 44 | 84 | 8 | |
| Liberal Democrats | 588 | 2,513 | 8 | 7 | 22 | 1 | |
| Green | 151 | 461 | 88 | 0 | 0 |  | |
| SNP | N/a[c] | 432 | | 0 | 0 | | |
| Plaid Cymru | N/a[d] | 207 | | 0 | 1 | | |
| UKIP | 0 | 8 | 48 | 0 | 0 | | |
| Independent | 308 | 2,203 | 44 | 0 | 11 | | |
| No overall control | N/a | 29 | 127 | 6 | |||
Turnout at the local elections was 35.6%.[48]
On 13 March 2020, the Government announced that the 2020 elections would be postponed until 2021 in response to growing concerns about the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.[8][20]
Show control of councils after the election
Show control of councils before the electionCounty councils are elected in full every four years, with the last election having been in 2017. County councils are the upper part of a two-tier system of local government, with the area each covers subdivided into district councils with different responsibilities. These are first-past-the-post elections with a mixture of single-member and multi-member electoral divisions.
There were previously twenty-six county councils, but there will only be twenty-four by the time of the election.Buckinghamshire County Council was replaced with a unitary authority,Buckinghamshire Council, on 1 April 2020.[49]Northamptonshire County Council "declared itself effectively bankrupt" in February 2018[50] and two new unitary authorities,North Northamptonshire andWest Northamptonshire replaced it on 1 April 2021.[51]
In late February 2021 the government confirmed that council elections in Cumbria, North Yorkshire, and Somerset were to be rescheduled for May 2022 because of plans to re-organise the structure of local government in those areas. This meant that council elections forCumbria County Council,North Yorkshire County Council andSomerset County Council were postponed until theMay 2022 local elections.[14]
Show control of councils after the election
Show control of councils before the electionThere are thirty-six metropolitan boroughs, which are single-tier local authorities. Thirty-three of them elect a third of their councillors every year for three years, with no election in each fourth year. These councils hold their elections on the same timetable, and were due to hold an election in 2020 but not in 2021. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the May 2020 elections were postponed to May 2021. The remaining three metropolitan boroughs elect their councillors in full every four years.Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council was due to hold an election for all councillors in May 2020, but this was postponed to 2021.Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council was due to elect its councillors in 2021.Birmingham City Council holds its elections on a four-year cycle from 2018, so was not due to hold an election until 2022; there were, however, by-elections in 4 wards.[52]
Due to boundary changes,Salford City Council also elected all of its councillors in 2021, and subsequently returned to the thirds schedule. The remaining thirty-two metropolitan borough councils that elect their councillors in thirds did so as usual at this election.
| Council | Seats | Original year | Previous control | Result | Details | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doncaster | 55 | 2021 | Labour | Labour | Details | ||
| Rotherham | 59 | 2020 | Labour | Labour | Details | ||
| Salford | 60 | 2020 | Labour | Labour | Details | ||
| All three councils | 178 | ||||||
Show control of councils after the election
Show control of councils before the electionThere were previously fifty-five unitary authorities, but three more were created by the May elections.Buckinghamshire County Council was replaced with a unitary authority,Buckinghamshire Council, on 1 April 2020;[53] the first election to the new unitary authority was scheduled for May 2020, but due to the coronavirus pandemic was rescheduled for May 2021. Subsequent elections are due to be held every four years from 2025.[49]Northamptonshire County Council was replaced with two unitary authorities,North Northamptonshire andWest Northamptonshire on 1 April 2021.[54] The first elections to the shadow authorities (temporary council structures before the council formally begins) were planned to be held in May 2020, but due to the coronavirus pandemic have been rescheduled to May 2021. Subsequent elections will be held every four years from 2025.[52]
Of the resulting fifty-eight unitary authorities, thirty elect all their councillors every four years on the cycle from 2019, so are not due to hold elections until 2023. Six elect their councillors every four years and were originally planning to elect in 2021. The three new unitary authorities were scheduled to hold their elections in 2020 and then every four years from 2025, before the 2020 local elections were postponed to 2021. Two unitary authorities were scheduled to elect all their councillors in 2020 but these have also been postponed to 2021. Seventeen unitary authorities elect a third of their councillors every year for three years including 2020 but not 2021, and these elections have been postponed to 2021. Two of these, Halton and Hartlepool, have had boundary changes that mean they are electing all of their councillors in 2021.[55][56]
Show control of councils after the election
Show control of councils before the election62 out of the 182non-metropolitan district councils held council elections.
Seven district councils had all of their seats up for election. The seats for Gloucester and Stroud were last up for election in 2016.Basingstoke and Deane,Cambridge,Chorley,Oxford andPendle have all seats up for election due to ward boundary changes.[57][58]
| Council | Previous control | Result | Details | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basingstoke and Deane | No overall control (Conservative minority) | Conservative | Details | |||
| Cambridge | Labour | Labour | Details | |||
| Chorley | Labour | Labour | Details | |||
| Gloucester | No overall control (Conservative minority) | Conservative | Details | |||
| Oxford | Labour | Labour | Details | |||
| Pendle | No overall control (Labour/Lib Dem coalition) | Conservative | Details | |||
| Stroud | No overall control (Labour/Green/Lib Dem coalition) | No overall control (Labour/Green/Lib Dem coalition) | Details | |||
Six councils had half of their seats up for election. These seats were last up for election in 2016, and were due to be contested in 2020.[57]
Forty-six councils had one-third of their seats up for election. These seats were last up for election in 2016, and were due to be contested in 2020.[57] Elections inCraven,Carlisle andSouth Lakeland have been postponed due to pending local government reorganisation. In July 2021 the government announced that these three district councils will be abolished in April 2023. The postponed elections will therefore not take place, and the councillors elected in 2016 will serve until 2023.
TheLondon Assembly consists of twenty-five elected members and acts as a scrutiny panel to the mayor. Members are elected using theadditional member system, which elects members using both constituencies and a London-wide electoral region.
TheCourt of Common Council is the main decision-making body of theCity of London Corporation, which governs theCity of London. The 100 councillors are elected across twenty-five wards. Elections were due on 18 March 2021, but as a result of the coronavirus pandemic were delayed to March 2022.[59]
TheCouncil of the Isles of Scilly is the local government authority for theIsles of Scilly. It has sixteen seats, which in the previous2017 election were all won by independent candidates.
TheMayor of London is normally elected for four years, although due to the rescheduling of the 2020 election, the election in 2021 was for a three-year term. The incumbent mayorSadiq Khan, won re-election with 40.0% of first preference votes, and 55.2% of second preference votes.
Seven combined authority mayors were up for election.
| Combined authority | Original year | Previous mayor | Elected mayor | Details | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cambridgeshire and Peterborough | 2021 | James Palmer (Con) | Nik Johnson (Labour Co-op) | Details | ||
| Greater Manchester | 2020 | Andy Burnham (Labour Co-op) | Andy Burnham (Labour Co-op) | Details | ||
| Liverpool City Region | 2020 | Steve Rotheram (Lab) | Steve Rotheram (Lab) | Details | ||
| Tees Valley | 2020 | Ben Houchen (Con) | Ben Houchen (Con) | Details | ||
| West Midlands | 2020 | Andy Street (Con) | Andy Street (Con) | Details | ||
| West of England | 2021 | Tim Bowles (Con) | Dan Norris (Lab) | Details | ||
| West Yorkshire | 2021 | Role established | Tracy Brabin (Labour Co-op) | Details | ||
Five single authority mayors were up for election.
| Local authority | Original year | Previous Mayor | Mayor-elect | Details | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bristol | 2020 | Marvin Rees (Lab) | Marvin Rees (Lab) | Details | ||
| Doncaster | 2021 | Ros Jones (Lab) | Ros Jones (Lab) | Details | ||
| Liverpool | 2020 | Joe Anderson[c] (Lab) | Joanne Anderson (Lab) | Details | ||
| North Tyneside | 2021 | Norma Redfearn (Lab) | Norma Redfearn (Lab) | Details | ||
| Salford | 2020 | Paul Dennett (Lab) | Paul Dennett (Lab) | Details | ||
Thirty-five police and crime commissioners in England were up for election, together with four police, fire and crime commissioners.
Elections took place to elect all 60 members of theSenedd (Welsh Parliament;Welsh:Senedd Cymru), which changed its name from the National Assembly for Wales in 2020.[43] Voting rights were extended to foreign nationals that live in Wales, and residents aged 16 or over.[60][43]
All fourpolice and crime commissioners in Wales were up for election, to represent the fourpolice force areas ofDyfed-Powys,Gwent,North Wales andSouth Wales.
Elections took place to elect all 129 members of theScottish Parliament.
Aby-election for Hartlepool was held on the same day as these local elections.[61]
Aby-election for Airdrie and Shotts took place a week later on 13 May.[62]
Aby-election for Chesham and Amersham took place on 17 June 2021.
Aby-election for Batley and Spen took place on 1 July 2021.
Aby-election for Old Bexley and Sidcup took place on 2 December 2021.
Aby-election for North Shropshire took place on 16 December 2021.
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| Local elections |
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