2022 United Kingdom local elections

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200 of 387 councils inGreat Britain 7 directly elected mayors
Turnout	35.6%[1][2][3]
First party Second party Third party   Leader Keir Starmer Boris Johnson Ed Davey Party Labour Conservative Liberal Democrats Leader since 4 April 2020 23 July 2019 27 August 2020 Seats before 5,911 seats[4] 83 councils 7,587 seats 137 councils 2,531 seats 24 councils Projected vote share[a] 35% 6% 30% 8% 19% 2% Seats won (2022) 3,073 74 councils 1,403 35 councils 868 16 councils Councillors (after) 6,100 88 councils[5] 7,159 126 councils 2,765 27 councils Net change (notional) 108 5 councils 485 11 councils 224 3 councils   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Nicola Sturgeon Adam Price Carla Denyer andAdrian Ramsay Party SNP Plaid Cymru Green Leader since 14 November 2014 28 September 2018 1 October 2021 Seats before 433 seats 0 councils 207 seats 1 council 473 seats 0 councils Projected vote share[a] n/a n/a 11%[6] 1% Seats won (2022) 453 1 council 202 4 councils 159 0 councils Councillors (after) 453 1 council 202 4 councils 568 0 councils Net change (notional) 22 1 council 6 3 councils 86 0 councils
Map showing party control of councils following the elections.   No election otherwise seeanalysis table

The2022 United Kingdom local elections took place on Thursday 5 May 2022. These included elections forall London borough councils, and forall local authorities in Wales andScotland. Most seats in England were last up for election in 2018 and in Scotland and Wales in 2017. The elections coincided with the2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election. In 91 cases, most of them in Wales, council seats were uncontested, each having only one candidate. Three seats in Scotland remained unfilled as no one nominated to fill them.

The local elections took place amid thePartygate scandal, in which it was found that numerous parties had been held at10 Downing Street duringnational COVID-19 lockdowns, and COVID-19 social distancing laws were breached by numerous individuals. Public dissatisfaction over the events led to a decline in public support forBoris Johnson, the government led by him, and the Conservatives as a whole.

AcrossGreat Britain, the governing Conservative Party had a net loss of 485 seats in comparison to2017 in Scotland and Wales and2018 in England, whilstLabour gained 108 seats (22 in England, 20 in Scotland, and 66 in Wales). TheLiberal Democrats andGreens made gains of 224 seats and 87 seats, respectively, which exceeded those of the Labour Party in England but were also seen to a more modest extent in Scotland and Wales.

In total, 4,411 council seats were contested in England, including irregular by-elections.^[7]

Most seats in England up for election in 2022 were last elected in 2018. The exceptions are local authorities which have undergone recent boundary reviews. In the 2018 local elections, theLabour Party made gains in London at the expense of theConservative Party, who in turn made gains in the rest of England at the expense of theUK Independence Party (UKIP). Few councils changed overall control.^[8] Overall, UKIP lost 237 of the 243 seats it had held before the elections.^[9] According to the BBC's analysis, the results reflected a national political situation with Labour and the Conservatives "neck-and-neck".^[10]

AcrossGreat Britain, theConservatives had a net loss of 485 seats in comparison to2017 in Scotland and Wales and2018 in England, whilstLabour gained 108 seats (22 in England, 20 in Scotland, and 66 in Wales). TheLiberal Democrats andGreens made gains of 224 seats and 87 seats, respectively, which exceeded those of the Labour Party in England but were also seen to a more modest extent in Scotland and Wales. TheScottish National Party (SNP) gained 22 seats in Scotland whilstPlaid Cymru had a net loss of 6 seats in Wales.^[11]

Party		Councillors			Councils
		Won	After[5]	+/-[b]	Won	After	+/-
	Conservative	1,403	7,159	485	35	126	11
	Labour	3,073	6,100	108	74	88	5
	Liberal Democrats	868	2,765	224	16	27	3
	Green	159	568	87	0	0
	SNP	453	453	22	0	1
	Plaid Cymru	202	202	6	0	4	3
	Aspire	24	24	24	1	1	1
	Reform UK	2	7	2	0	0
	Independent	646	2,190	2	3	8	1
	No overall control	—			66	132	1

Results of the 2022 council elections in England^[12]

Party		Councils		Councillors		Mayors
		Number	Change	Number	Change	Number	Change
	Labour	65	3	2,265	22	4	1
	Conservative	35	10	1,078	336	1	1
	No overall control	29	3	—
	Liberal Democrats	16	3	712	194	1
	Aspire	1	1	24	24	1	1
	Independent	0		143	25	0
	Green	0		116	63	0
	Residents	0		51	7	0
	Reform UK	0		2	2	0
	Liberal[13]	0		1	1	0
	SDP[14]	0		1	1	0
	UKIP	0		0	3	0
Total		146		4,393		7	+1

County councils are the upper tier of a two-tier system of local government, with the area each council covers subdivided into district councils with different responsibilities. These arefirst-past-the-post orblock voting elections, with a mixture of single-member and multi-member electoral divisions.County councils are elected in full every four years, with the last election having been in 2021. However, due to consultations aboutpossible unitarisation, elections for three county councils were postponed to 2022.^[15] The government has announced plans to replace the councils with unitary authorities pending Parliamentary approval.^[16]

Elections to the newSomerset Council took place on 5 May 2022 for a unitary authority to run concurrently with the district councils until their abolition in April 2023.^[17] In a similar way, members ofNorth Yorkshire Council were elected at the same time, with its councillors to serve as county councillors for one year and then to serve an additional four-year term as unitary councillors.^[18] Cumbria's two new unitary authorities were elected as "shadow authorities" which would go live after gaining their powers in 2023.^[19]

Elections for all councillors in all thirty-twoLondon boroughs were held in 2022 in line with their normal election schedule. All twenty-five London borough councils which have not had a boundary review since before 2013 were elected based on new boundaries.^[20] The previous elections to London borough councils were held in2018, which saw Labour win its second-best result in any London election and the Conservatives return their lowest-ever number of councillors in the capital. In 2018, Labour won control ofTower Hamlets council which had previously been underno overall control, but did not gain control ofBarnet,Wandsworth orWestminster councils, which the party had targeted. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats gained control ofKingston upon Thames andRichmond upon Thames borough councils from the Conservatives.^[21]

The 2022 elections saw Labour gain all three of Barnet, Wandsworth and Westminster councils which they had unsuccessfully targeted in 2018. The Conservatives gained control ofHarrow from Labour as well as winning the new position ofmayor of Croydon, withCroydon's council under no overall control, having previously been control by Labour.Lutfur Rahman gained the position ofmayor of Tower Hamlets from Labour, with hisAspire party winning a majority of seats.^[22]

There 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, which includes elections in 2022.Birmingham City Council holds its elections on a four-year cycle from 2018, so was due to hold an election in 2022. Due to boundary changes, three councils which generally elect their councillors in thirds elected all of their councillors in 2022. They then returned to the thirds schedule, apart fromSt Helens Council, which moved to all-out elections every four years starting in 2022. Several other boundary reviews were delayed to 2023 due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. The scheduled elections in Liverpool in 2022 were cancelled and instead the city moved to all-out elections from 2023 on new ward boundaries.^[23]

By-elections or uncontested wards can cause the seats up for election to be above or below one third of the council.

Some councils which elect all their councillors every four years did so in 2022. Gosport usually elects its councillors in halves, but all seats were up for election due to new election boundaries. St Albans usually elects by thirds but all seats were up on new boundaries. Harrogate was due to elect all its councillors, but the election was cancelled due to the unitarisation of North Yorkshire, with councillors' terms being extended to April 2023, after which the district councils in North Yorkshire ceased to exist.^[24]

District councils which elect their candidates in halves did so in 2022.

District councils which elect by thirds that held elections in 2022.Carlisle,Craven andSouth Lakeland had been due to have a third of councillors up for election but these were cancelled due to the creation of Cumberland, North Yorkshire, and Westmorland and Furness Unitary authorities.^[25]

Reading Borough Council elected all its councillors elected on new ward boundaries. The new unitary authoritySomerset Council held its first election under the oldSomerset County Council boundaries, with twice as many councillors being elected as previously. Shadow authorities for the two new unitary authorities replacingCumbria County Council and its districts were elected, as were councillors for the newNorth Yorkshire Council ahead of its creation in 2023.

Notably, the count for the Skipton West and West Craven seat ended in a tie between independent candidate Andy Solloway and the Labour candidate Peter Madeley. After various methods for deciding the tie were mooted, including drawing from a deck of cards, the candidatesdrew straws with Andy Solloway drawing the long straw, thus being declared the winner.^[26]

Unitary authorities that elect councillors in thirds did so in 2022.

TheCourt of Common Council is the main decision-making body of theCity of London Corporation, which governs theCity of London. The 100 councillors were elected across twenty-five wards. Elections were due on 18 March 2021, but as a result of the coronavirus pandemic were delayed to 23 March 2022.^[27][28]

There were six local authority mayoral elections and one metropolitan mayoral election.

There was also a referendum inBristol on whether to continue using the mayor-and-cabinet system or to change to the committee system, with 59% voting to abolish the position of mayor.^[29]

Elections were held for all councillors in all 32 local authorities in Scotland. Local elections in Scotland are conducted by thesingle transferable vote (STV), which results in the number of seats won by each party more proportionally reflecting their share of the vote.^[34] As a consequence, local elections in Scotland result more often in no overall control and local authorities being governed by minority or coalition administrations.^[34]In this election two of the 32 councils came under one-party majorities - Dundee (SNP) and West Dunbartonshire (Labour).

Elections were held for all councillors in all 22 local authorities as well as for allcommunity council seats in Wales. In all twenty-two councils, the elections were contested under new boundaries. This was the first time Welsh councils could choose between conducting the vote with the current first-past-the-post system or the proportionalsingle transferable vote (STV) system, although practically this will not come into effect until at least 2027, as councils need to give advance notice of such a change.^[35][36]

The 2022 election to theNorthern Ireland Assembly took place on 5 May 2022.

• 2022 Birmingham Erdington by-election
• 2022 Tiverton and Honiton by-election
• 2022 Wakefield by-election

• 2022 United Kingdom local elections
• 2022 elections in the United Kingdom
• Premiership of Boris Johnson
• Keir Starmer
• Ed Davey

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