Results of the 2014 local elections

Nearly all of the results for the 2014 local elections have been declared. In England, Labour and the United Kingdom Independence Party were the two parties that saw the most gains while the Conservative and Liberal Democrat seat losses continued. Labour won 31% of the vote, while the Conservatives, UKIP and the Liberal Democrats won 29%, 17% and 13%, respectively. Labour gained over 330 seats while UKIP gained 161. The Conservatives lost over 230 councillors while the Liberal Democrats lost over 300. Labour took control of six councils while the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats lost 11 and two, respectively. No Overall Control gained the most councils: seven.

Several of the smaller parties made gains: Independents won a total of 68 seats, up from 53 in this cycle, and the Residents' Association added 14 from 39. Most of the Green Party of England and Wales' incumbents were re-elected and the party picked up 16 additional councillors. The British National Party held onto its councillor up in this cycle. Some small parties experienced losses: The Liberal Party held two seats but lost two others, the Independent Community and Health Concern won one and lost two, and the Respect Party lost its sole local government seat. Overall, though, the small parties and independents performed fairly well.

In Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionist Party won the most amount of councillors (130) but came second to Sinn Féin in the popular vote (24.07% to 23.09). The Ulster Unionist Party and Social Democratic and Labour Party won 88 and 66 councillors, respectively. The Northern Irish results received little attention, as the media focus has been on UKIP's performance in England.

I am not surprised by the results, as they're roughly what was predicted in the polling and discussed in the news, although once again I had thought that the Conservatives would lose much more than they did. Both Labour and the Conservatives have blamed UKIP for why they didn't win in certain areas; for example, in the London Borough of Croydon, the local Conservatives blamed UKIP for why they lost control of the council. Labour and the Conservatives are both trying to figure out how they can win back UKIP voters while the Liberal Democrats are still working on how they can reverse - or at least stop - their continuing losses.

The next general election is less than a year away now. It is too early to speculate how the parties will perform then.