Local Elections 2025: results and analysis

On 1 May 2025, local elections were held in 23 of England’s councils. Reform UK won the largest number of seats with 677, amounting to 41% of all seats up for election.

Labour remains the largest party in local government following the 2025 local elections. Continuing the recent trend first seen in 2023, councils are more likely to have ‘no overall control’ than be controlled by a political party.

Writing in the Local Government Chronicle, politics professors Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher estimated that Reform would have won the majority of seats if the elections had taken place in every part of the country, winning an estimated 32% of the vote.

Labour would have come second, with 19% - down from 34% in 2024. The Conservatives also saw a decline, falling to 18% from 27% in 2024. Lib Dems would have remained at 16%, the same as was estimated in 2024. Independents/ Other parties (including the Green party) were estimated at 15%, a decrease from 23% in 2024.

Data used in this briefing is taken mostly from the BBC and from professors Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher.

Number of seats up for election

Local councillors are elected for four-year terms using the first past the post system. Across England, elections took place for 1,637 seats in 23 local authorities (1,731 including by-elections):

• 14 county councils
• Eight unitary authorities
• One metropolitan district

There were also elections for four combined authority mayors and two local council mayors.

Some elections planned for 2025 were postponed

Previously, all 21 county councils in England were due to hold local elections in the May 2025 election. In December 2024, the government gave councils the option to postpone local elections if this would “help [an] area to deliver both reorganisation and devolution to the most ambitious timeframe”. As a result, local elections were delayed in nine county council areas.

Vote share of winning candidates is falling

This year’s local elections saw the lowest ever average winner’s share of the vote, at 40.7%. Academics Rallings and Thrasher report that there were 75 candidates who were elected by winning less than 30% of the vote.

Summary of the results Reform won 41% of seats up for election

Reform won 677 seats (41% of the total) and gained control of 10 councils. This is the first time that Reform (or the Brexit Party, as it was previously known) has controlled any councils in local government.

Labour won 6% of seats

Labour won 98 seats (6% of the total) and lost control of one council. Although not directly comparable, Labour won 28% of seats in 2021. The 2025 result is the lowest proportion of seats that Labour has won in over 20 years, down from a previous low of 7% in 2015.

Conservatives lost control of 16 councils

The Conservatives lost control of 16 councils in England. The Conservatives won 20% of seats up for election in this cycle, the second lowest proportion of seats that the party has won in the last 20 years.

Liberal Democrats won 23% of seats

The Liberal Democrats won control of three councils. The party won 23% of seats up for election, its highest result since 2008.

Green Party, Independents and no overall control

The Green Party won 5% of seats up for election, and the Green Party still controls 1 council (with a majority).

In England, 7 are controlled by independents or other parties, who won 6% of the vote.

Following the 2025 local elections, there were 161 councils in Great Britain with no overall control, which means that no party has a majority of councillors. This is 16 more than in 2024. Councils under no overall control make up the majority of councils in Great Britain.