Re-localising elections

After counting the votes, let's count clichés: Calamitous, catastrophic, cataclysmic, earth-shattering, unprecedented, momentous, to which can be added: a deluge of biblical proportions. The 2026 English local election results were all these; but what do they tell us about the state of English local democracy?A depressing point about the English local elections is their progressive nationalisation and the 2026 results show that trend continuing unabated. The Commons Library Research Briefing, 2023: A Long Century of Elections shows local elections have long been a referendum on the government of the day. That conclusion masks the countless battles over local issues, council decisions and differences between council and community priorities – but, it is accurate, as 7 May 2026 showed. National parties are spinning local results onto national issues but there is no spin to make these results look good for Labour – remember the Conservatives in 1986 and 1990 using Wandsworth and Westminster to deflect from bad results everywhere else? While the Conservative played the Westminster card again, is there anywhere Labour can point and say: ‘ah look we held "x" council so it's not that bad'? Writing on 9 May, the answer is no. Reflecting on the results, Conservative MPs highlighted how they had held the Government to account in Parliament and changed government policy - the subtext being Reform hasn't – the voters didn't care! Labour MPs have said Starmer should or shouldn't go.The results show the Brexit faultline holds in English politics a decade after the referendum which is reflected in local results in certain parts of the country. While there are the general trends across the country, we also see parties – apart from Labour – winning seats in one place, but losing them elsewhere. The win-lose which plays itself out behind national trends, is a straw for localists to clutch. In May 2025 around 75% of councillors elected were Labour, Conservative or Liberal Democrat – going back a decade or more, that figure has been as high as 90%. All parties play the ‘bash the Prime Minister' card and use national issues in local elections to suit and these elections were no different – immigration or Gaza. So, it's no surprise Reform UK will mention legal and illegal immigration, or the Greens and so called (Gaza) Independents (less independents, more a nascent Muslim Party), use Palestine as ways of galvanising support. Indeed, parties of the left used Nigel Farage as a bogeyman to be rejected in these ‘local elections' where he wasn't even standing. All national parties are responsible for pushing local issues out of local elections - until they are desperate because of the unpopularity of their Government.The results show the Brexit faultline holds in English politics a decade after the referendum which is reflected in local results in certain parts of the country. While there are the general trends across the country, we also see parties – apart from Labour – winning seats in one place, but losing them elsewhere. The win-lose which plays itself out behind national trends, is a straw for localists to clutch. Were local issues the reason for trend-bucking results? All local elections have trend-buckers - we need to know why, and are local issues and councillors responsible for this happening? Yet the story reported is on national trends and England is no-longer a two-party system, but a five-party system, produced by a voting process designed to sustain a two party system. Can this hold, especially as the results show that local election voting is a complex mix of international, national, communitarian and, as Pritti Patel admitted when interviewed, even local issues as well?Post-election saw a long line of MPs (and commentators) arguing about what the results meant for national parties and their General Election prospects - little attention was given to what was happening locally, and what local issues would have been involved in shaping votes. Indeed, many candidates/parties fought on local issues offering competing visions of how public services, communities and councils should develop and that is to be encouraged. Local elections must be re-localised which can only be achieved by a voting system which allows for not only national parties, but real independents, local parties and local single-issue groups to win seats. That thought will strike terror into the hearts of those who like the smack of firm local government and a system which inflates the vote to seat ratio. But, overseas we see local voting systems designed to avoid inflated majorities and produce a proportionate result. Councillors elected then get on with it, make it work and stuff gets done.At the time of writing with five councils still to finalise, we see in seats: Labour down over 1,400Conservatives down over 550Liberal Democrats up 153 Greens up 38Independents up 28Reform up 1,443(Source: BBC Election website)Something to remember in mulling the results: the story isn't councils won or lost, as around 70 councils were electing a third or half of councillors and in these circumstances if Reform or the Greens had won all seats up, they wouldn't have taken the council. Imagine if all seats on every council had been up: more Newcastles, Sunderlands and Birminghams?Finally, when interviewed on TV a tired, bleary-eyed and croaky secretary of state Steve Reed said he felt really sorry for those hard working councillors who had lost seats. Shame then, that thousands more will lose their seats because of local government reorganisation and the creation of huge councils he is championing. But most of those councillors now won't be Labour. Colin Copus is emeritus professor of local politics, De Montfort University (visiting professor Ghent University)

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ELECTIONS

Re-localising elections

By Professor Colin Copus | 10 May 2026

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