United Kingdom local elections, 2005

United Kingdom local elections, 2005

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   Leader Michael Howard Tony Blair Charles Kennedy Party Conservative Labour Liberal Democrat Leader since 6 November 2003 21 July 1994 9 August 1999 Last election 37% 30% 21% Percentage 40% 28% 25% Swing 3% 2% 4% Councils 24 6 3 Councils +/- 7 1 3 Councillors 1193 612 493 Councillors +/- 152 114 40

Elections for local government were held in the England and Northern Ireland on 5 May 2005 along with the 2005 general election across the entire United Kingdom. In addition, the Isle of Wight held a local referendum on the issue of a directly elected mayor.

Despite losing the general election held on the same day, the Conservatives made strong 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

Source: BBC local election results for England^[1]

England

Non-metropolitan county councils

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

‡ New ward 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.

‡ New ward boundaries

Third of council

Sui generis

Mayoral elections

Four direct mayoral elections were held.

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

Source: ARK research and knowledge group^[2]

References

• Local and Mayoral elections 2005. House of Commons Library Research Paper 05/93