2024 Maidstone Borough Council election

← 2023 2 May 2024 (2024-05-02) 2028 →
All 49 seats toMaidstone Borough Council 25 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader David Burton Clive English Stuart Jeffery Party Conservative Liberal Democrats Green Last election 24 seats, 32.7% 12 seats, 22.9% 3 seats, 16.8% Seats before 25 12 3 Seats won 13 12 10 Seat change 12 7 Popular vote 26,353 16,639 18,470 Percentage 31.9% 20.1% 22.3% Swing 0.8% 2.8% 5.5%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Maureen Cleator [a] Paul Harper Party Labour Independent Fant and Oakwood Independents Last election 6 seats, 15.6% 10 seats, 11.3% n/a Seats before 4 9 2 Seats won 6 6 2 Seat change 2 3 2 Popular vote 10,415 5,582 2,434 Percentage 12.6% 6.8% 2.9% Swing 3.0% 4.5% n/a
Winner of each seat at the 2024 Maidstone Borough Council election
Council control before election David Burton Conservative No overall control Council control after election Stuart Jeffrey Green No overall control

The2024 Maidstone Borough Council election took place on Thursday 2 May 2024, alongside theother local elections in the United Kingdom being held on the same day. All 49 members ofMaidstone Borough Council inKent were elected following boundary changes.^[1]

The council remained underno overall control. TheConservative minority administration which had been running the council prior to the election was replaced by a coalition of theLiberal Democrats,Greens and some of theindependent councillors, led by Green councillor Stuart Jeffery.

Prior to the election, the council was underno overall control, being run by a Conservative minority administration with informal support from some of the independent councillors.^[2] The leader of the council before the election was Conservative councillor David Burton, who had held the post since 2021. He did not stand for re-election.^[3]

Following the election the council remained under no overall control. The Conservatives were still the largest party, but with a significantly reduced share of the seats.^[4] A coalition of theLiberal Democrats,Greens and four of the independent councillors subsequently formed to run the council, led by Green councillor Stuart Jeffery. He was formally appointed as leader of the council at the subsequent annual council meeting on 18 May 2024.^[5]

Maidstone usually elects its councillors in thirds, on a 4-year cycle. However, following boundary changes, all councillors will be elected to the new wards.^[6] The change reduces the number of councillors by 6.

Changes:

• May 2023: Michelle Hastie (independent) joins Conservatives^[9]
• July 2023: Patrick Coates and Paul Harper leave Labour to sit as independents^[10]
• November 2023: Fant & Oakwood Independents formed - Patrick Coates and Paul Harper (both independents) join party^[11]

2024 Maidstone Borough Council election
Party		Candidates	Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Conservative	49	13	0	0	12	26.5	31.9	26,353	–0.8
	Liberal Democrats	29	12	0	0		24.5	20.1	16,639	–2.8
	Green	35	10	0	0	7	20.4	22.3	18,470	+5.5
	Independent	10	8	0	0	3	16.3	9.7	8,016	–1.6
	Labour	28	6	0	0	2	15.6	12.6	10,415	–3.0
	Reform	8	0	0	0		0.0	2.7	2,264	+2.3
	British Democrats	1	0	0	0		0.0	0.5	452	N/A
	Heritage	1	0	0	0		0.0	0.1	107	–0.2

An asterisk denotes an incumbent councillor seeking re-election.

Boughton Monchelsea and Chart Sutton^[15]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	Anne Dawes	599	63.1	+10.3
	Conservative	George Burr	216	22.8	–5.2
	Labour	Peter Oliver	134	14.1	+9.7
Turnout			958
	Independenthold		Swing	7.8

Patrick Coates and Paul Harper were originally elected as Labour Party candidates, but stood under the descriptions of "Fant and Oakwood Independents" at this election.

Michelle Hastie was originally elected as an Liberal Democrat.

• Maidstone Borough Council elections
• 2024 English local elections
• May 2024 in the United Kingdom
• 2020s in Kent

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata