2005 United Kingdom local elections

5 May 2005

All 34 non-metropolitan counties, 3 out of 46 unitary authorities,
1 sui generis authority, 4 directly elected mayors
and all 26 Northern Irish districts
  Majority party Minority party Third party
  Tony Blair
Leader Michael Howard Tony Blair Charles Kennedy
Party Conservative Labour Liberal Democrats
Leader since 6 November 2003 21 July 1994 9 August 1999
Percentage 40% 28% 25%
Swing Increase3% Decrease2% Increase4%
Councils 24 6 3
Councils +/- Increase7 Decrease1 Increase3
Councillors 1,193 612 493
Councillors +/- Increase152 Decrease114 Increase40

Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results.

The 2005 United Kingdom local elections were held on Thursday 5 May 2005, with various councils and local government seats being contested in England and Northern Ireland, and a local referendum taking place on the Isle of Wight on the issue of a directly elected mayor. These local elections were held in conjunction with the 2005 general election across the entire United Kingdom.

Despite losing the general election held on the same day, the Conservatives made some gains at Labour's expense, providing some comfort to the party. Conservative leader Michael Howard resigned soon afterwards and was succeeded by David Cameron, who had a decent platform to build on in his challenge to lead the Conservatives to a general election victory; the party had increased its share of council seats and importantly its share of seats in parliament.

Summary of results

Party Councillors Councils
Number Change Number Change
Conservative 1,193 Increase152 24 Increase7
Labour 612 Decrease114 6 Decrease1
Liberal Democrats 493 Increase40 3 Increase3
DUP 182 Increase51 2 Increase2
Sinn Féin 126 Increase18 0 Steady
Ulster Unionist 115 Decrease39 0 Steady
SDLP 101 Decrease16 0 Steady
Alliance 30 Increase2 0 Steady
Independent 20 Decrease14 0 Steady
Green 8 Increase6 0 Steady
Residents 8 Decrease3 0 Steady
Green (NI) 3 Increase3 0 Steady
Liberal 2 Decrease3 0 Steady
PUP 2 Decrease2 0 Steady
United Unionist 2 Steady 0 Steady
Health Concern 1 Decrease5 0 Steady
Newtownabbey
Ratepayers
1 Steady 0 Steady
NI Women's Coalition 0 Decrease1 0 Steady
UKIP 0 Decrease1 0 Steady
UK Unionist 0 Decrease2 0 Steady
Other 96 Decrease26 0 Steady
No overall control n/a n/a 4 Decrease9

[1]

Like in 2001, many results were in line with the general election on the same day.

The Liberal Democrats gained Cornwall, whilst simultaneously winning Camborne & Falmouth from Labour, and thus holding every parliamentary seat in Cornwall. Similarly in Somerset too, where they regained Taunton from the Conservatives.

The Conservative gain in Gloucestershire coincided with their gain of Forest of Dean from Labour, the swing towards them in Cheltenham where the previous Lib Dem MP had retired and their near-miss result where Labour narrowly held on to Stroud. Worcestershire's result coincided with reduced Labour majorities in Worcester and Redditch, whilst overtaking Labour for second place in Wyre Forest. The Isle of Wight was also in line with the general election, which saw a huge increase in the Conservative majority on the island.

Northamptonshire coincided with Labour's losses in Kettering, Wellingborough and Northampton South, all of which were extremely marginal seats that the Conservatives narrowly lost in 1997 and where they failed to make any progress in 2001. Shropshire similarly coincided with 3 gains in the general elections for the Conservatives, where they took The Wrekin and Shrewsbury & Atcham from Labour and took Ludlow from the Liberal Democrats. Suffolk coincided with no actual seat gains in the general election, but swings to the Conservatives of at least 3% in all seven constituencies. The swings were larger in their own five constituencies, with a swing of almost 7% in Bury St Edmunds.

The Liberal Democrat gain in Devon, however, happened despite a mixed bag of results in the general election. They lost Devon West & Torridge to the Conservatives, and in Torbay, the Conservatives reduced their majority. There were small swings to the Lib Dems in Totnes, Teignbridge and Devon North, though a big swing away from them in Tiverton and Honiton.

England

Non-metropolitan county councils

In 34 shire county county councils, all seats were up for re-election.

Council Previous control Result Details
Bedfordshire Conservative Conservative hold Details
Buckinghamshire Conservative Conservative hold Details
Cambridgeshire Conservative Conservative hold Details
Cheshire Conservative Conservative hold Details
Cornwall No overall control Liberal Democrats gain Details
Cumbria No overall control No overall control hold Details
Derbyshire Labour Labour hold Details
Devon No overall control Liberal Democrats gain Details
Dorset Conservative Conservative hold Details
Durham Labour Labour hold Details
East Sussex Conservative Conservative hold Details
Essex Conservative Conservative hold Details
Gloucestershire No overall control Conservative gain Details
Hampshire Conservative Conservative hold Details
Hertfordshire Conservative Conservative hold Details
Kent Conservative Conservative hold Details
Lancashire Labour Labour hold Details
Leicestershire Conservative Conservative hold Details
Lincolnshire Conservative Conservative hold Details
Norfolk Conservative Conservative hold Details
North Yorkshire Conservative Conservative hold Details
Northamptonshire Labour Conservative gain Details
Northumberland Labour Labour hold Details
Nottinghamshire Labour Labour hold Details
Oxfordshire No overall control Conservative gain Details
Shropshire No overall control Conservative gain Details
Somerset No overall control Liberal Democrats gain Details
Staffordshire Labour Labour hold Details
Suffolk No overall control Conservative gain Details
Surrey Conservative Conservative hold Details
Warwickshire No overall control No overall control hold Details
West Sussex Conservative Conservative hold Details
Wiltshire Conservative Conservative hold Details
Worcestershire No overall control Conservative gain Details

‡ New electoral division boundaries

Unitary authorities

Whole council

In two unitary authorities the whole council were up for election and one had a third of the council up for election.

Council Previous control Result Details
Isle of Wight No overall control Conservative gain Details
Stockton-on-Tees Labour No overall control gain Details

‡ New ward boundaries

Third of council

Council Previous control Result Details
Bristol No overall control No overall control hold Details

Sui generis

Council Previous control Result Details
Isles of Scilly Independent Independent hold Details

Mayoral elections

Four direct mayoral elections were held.

Local Authority Previous Mayor Mayor-elect Details
Doncaster Martin Winter (Labour) Martin Winter (Labour)
Hartlepool Stuart Drummond (Independent) Stuart Drummond (Independent)
North Tyneside Linda Arkley (Conservative) John Harrison (Labour) Details
Stoke-on-Trent Mike Wolfe (Independent) Mark Meredith (Labour)

Northern Ireland

All seats were up for election in the 26 districts of Northern Ireland. The many parties and the use of the single transferable vote meant that most councils ended up in no overall control. The DUP gained majority control of three councils: Ards, Ballymena, and Castlereagh.

Results summary

Party Councillors Votes
Change Total  % share Total
DUP +51 182 30 208,278
Sinn Féin +18 126 23 163,205
Ulster Unionist -39 115 18 126,317
SDLP -16 101 17 121,991
Alliance +2 30 5 35,149
Independent -14 20 4 27,677
Green (NI) +3 3 1 5,703
PUP -2 2 1 4,591
United Unionist 0 2 0.3 2,064
Newtownabbey Ratepayers 0 1 0.3 1,897
Socialist Environmental 0 0 0.2 1,321
NI Conservatives 0 0 0.2 1,164
Workers' Party 0 0 0.1 1,052
Socialist Party 0 0 0.1 828
NI Women's Coalition -1 0 0.1 738
UK Unionist -2 0 0.1 734

Council Control

Council Previous control Result Details
Antrim No overall control No overall control Details
Ards No overall control DUP Details
Armagh No overall control No overall control Details
Ballymena No overall control DUP Details
Ballymoney DUP DUP Details
Banbridge No overall control No overall control Details
Belfast No overall control No overall control Details
Carrickfergus No overall control No overall control Details
Castlereagh No overall control DUP Details
Coleraine No overall control No overall control Details
Cookstown No overall control No overall control Details
Craigavon No overall control No overall control Details
Derry No overall control No overall control Details
Down No overall control No overall control Details
Dungannon and South Tyrone No overall control No overall control Details
Fermanagh No overall control No overall control Details
Larne No overall control No overall control Details
Limavady No overall control No overall control Details
Lisburn No overall control No overall control Details
Magherafelt No overall control Sinn Féin Details
Moyle No overall control No overall control Details
Newry and Mourne No overall control No overall control Details
Newtownabbey No overall control No overall control Details
North Down No overall control No overall control Details
Omagh No overall control No overall control Details
Strabane No overall control Sinn Féin Details

Source: ARK research and knowledge group[2]

References

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