Local Elections 2025: Reform Soars As Tories And Labour Suffer Bruising Results
Reform UK has gone above and beyond expectations (Alamy)
5 min read
Both the Conservatives and Labour have suffered a bruising set of local election results, with Reform winning the largest portion of seats in 14 councils
Reform took overall control in 10 councils, overturning a Conservative-controlled administration in eight of those authorities and a Labour administration in another.
The right-wing party also delivered a strong message to Labour, winning two of the four metro mayor seats up for grabs.
The public took to the polls on Thursday to vote on 23 county councils, unitary authorities and metropolitan boroughs, as well as six mayors.
Reform UK has gone above and beyond expectations. The set of results has bolstered the party’s leader, Nigel Farage, who said on Friday that “Reform-quake is here” and “Reform can and will win the next general election.”
What are the results of the local elections?
The full results have been declared in all 23 councils.
In order for a party to win overall control of a council, it must win at least half of the seats available.
The Conservatives have so far lost control of all the 18 councils they had held previously, now holding the largest number of seats in just two authorities—Northumberland County Council and Buckinghamshire Council. However, in both authorities, no party has no overall control.
In Northumberland, the Conservatives have just 26 of the 69 council seats, with Reform close on their heels with 23 councillors.
Overall, the Conservatives have lost a total of 635 council seats.
Reform has won the largest portion of seats in 14 councils and taken overall control in 10 councils.
The Liberal Democrats won control of both Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire County Councils for the first time, with a spokesperson saying the party had “replaced the Conservatives as the party of Middle England”, adding the Conservatives had faced “humiliation”.
Overall, the Liberal Democrats have seen gains of 146 seats.
The Greens have also seen gains, winning 41 more council seats.
Which mayors have been elected?
There is one silver lining for the incumbent government. Labour has clung on to some mayoral seats.
This year, there were elections for four metro mayors (who run combined authorities) and two city mayors.
Labour managed to retain three mayoral seats in the West of England (a metro mayor authority) and two city mayors in Doncaster and North Tyneside.
Reform managed to cinch two of the metro mayor seats.
Metro mayors
• Cambridgeshire and Peterborough - Conservative win, Paul Bristow
• Greater Lincolnshire – Reform win, Andrea Jenkyns
• Hull and East Yorkshire – Reform win, Luke Campbell
• West of England – Labour hold, Helen Godwin
City mayors
• Doncaster – Labour hold, Ros Jones
• North Tyneside – Labour hold, Karen Clark
Reform came second in all but the two contests they won, showing the widespread threat of the party.
In Doncaster, for example, Labour held onto the seat by under 700 votes. In contrast, Doncaster council is now led by Reform UK.
How will mayors and councils work together?
It is often the case that metro mayors do not directly reflect the parties leading the councils that make up the combined authority.
For example, the mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire Luke Campbell will be working with a Liberal Democrat council (Hull City Council) and one council with no overall control (East Riding of Yorkshire Council).
And in Greater Lincolnshire, Jenkyns will be working with a Reform-held council, a Conservative-held council and one with no overall control.
It is important that a mayor can work in partnership with its council leaders, as they can be blocked from taking decisions if the council disagrees with the direction of travel.
For example, both the mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and past mayor of Birmingham Andy Street have had decisions blocked by their councils in previous years.
Akash Paun, programme director at the Institute for Government, told PoliticsHome they may be inclined to rebel against their mayor, but that it depends how they go about their job.
“On the face of it, you would think a Reform mayor might be harder for Labour or Lib Dems to work with.”
In Labour and the Liberal Democrats, Paun said, rebellions may not necessarily be about disagreements on specific decisions.
“It might simply be that other parties - just because it is Reform - are a bit less willing to work with them or feel compelled to show that they are disagreeing with the mayor or pushing back on things mayors might be calling for.”
“The other thing I would say is in the end mayors can set the tone and it will be interesting to watch whether Andrea Jenkyns or Liam Campbell come in and really focus on their opposition to immigration, net zero or culture war things.
“These are not things that mayors have much sway over, but if they try and make that a key part of their rhetoric, it is more likely that they are going to get into disputes with other parties. If they stick to core devolved functions around transport, skills and economic development then I don’t see why these relationships should not work.”
All three main parties have hit back at Reform's plans for councils, which include carrying out audits to cut what they deem as wasteful spending and dismantling diversity programmes in Elon Musk style.
The Runcorn and Helsby by-election result:
Reform UK narrowly beat the historically safe Labour seat by just six votes.
In a win that will be symbolically important for a party that has been fighting to prove it is a party to take seriously.
Sarah Pochin, a former Conservative councillor, recorded 12,645 after a recount, while Labour’s candidate Karen Shore trailed on 12,639.
Meanwhile, the Conservative candidate Sean Holston trailed far behind the two frontrunners, winning just 2,341 votes.
There had been concerns raised previously that there was a chance the Tories could lose their deposit in the contest, but this was narrowly avoided as Holston achieved a 7.2 per cent share of the vote.
