Results of the 2013 local elections

The results are in: as expected the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have been the two parties to lose the most council seats while Labour and the United Kingdom Independence Party were the two to gain the most. According to BBC projections, no party has reached 30% of the overall vote, with Labour gaining 29%, the Conservatives 25%, UKIP 23% and the Liberal Democrats 14%; the average turnout has been reported as 31%.

The Conservatives lost 335 seats, but their 1116 councillors gives them the largest share of seats in this cycle; of their 28 councils up, they lost control of ten. Labour gained 291 councillors and control of two councils; the Liberal Democrats lost 124 seats, reducing their numbers to 352. Eight councils were rendered "No overall control".

UKIP's 23% of the overall vote and 139 additional seats gives them their biggest victory on the local level to date; it is unclear if UKIP's recent trend of success will endure and what effects it will bring if it does. The Green Party of England and Wales added five more councillors, which brought its number in this cycle up to 22 (they have over 140 in all cycles combined). Independent candidates added 24 councillors, bringing them up to 165 in this cycle.

In the mayoralties, the incumbent Conservative Mayor of North Tyneside, Linda Arkley, was defeated by Norma Redfearn, a member of Labour; the vote was not close, with Arkley losing by 19 percentage points. In Doncaster, the incumbent independent, Peter Davies, was narrowly defeated by Ros Jones, the Labour candidate. As for the South Shields parliamentary by-election, Labour won the seat with UKIP coming in second.

The results are mostly in line with what I was expecting; however, I thought the Conservatives' and Liberal Democrats' losses would be more severe and the Labour gains greater. I also mentioned in the previous post that both mayors were vulnerable due to their positions in Labour strongholds: Both were defeated, although I wasn't expecting the North Tyneside mayor to lose by such a wide margin. While Labour did not have a massive victory all across England, in their strongholds Labour overwhelmed the other parties; the two mayors were swept away by the coattails.

Should any updated information about the results arise, I will cover it in another post.