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2005 United Kingdom local elections

← 2004 5 May 2005 2006 →
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 Democrats Leader since 6 November 2003 21 July 1994 9 August 1999 Percentage 40% 28% 25% Swing 3% 2% 4% Councils 24 6 3 Councils +/- 7 1 3 Councillors 1,193 612 493 Councillors +/- 152 114 40
Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results.

The 2005 United Kingdom local elections were held on Thursday 5 May 2005, with various councils and local government seats being contested in England and Northern Ireland, and a local referendum taking place on the Isle of Wight on the issue of a directly elected mayor. These local elections were held in conjunction with the 2005 general election across the entire United Kingdom.

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

Party		Councillors		Councils
		Number	Change	Number	Change
	Conservative	1,193	152	24	7
	Labour	612	114	6	1
	Liberal Democrats	493	40	3	3
	DUP	182	51	2	2
	Sinn Féin	126	18	0
	UUP	115	39	0
	SDLP	101	16	0
	Alliance	30	2	0
	Independent	20	14	0
	Green	8	6	0
	Residents	8	3	0
	Green (NI)	3	3	0
	Liberal	2	3	0
	PUP	2	2	0
	United Unionist	2		0
	Health Concern	1	5	0
	Newtownabbey Ratepayers	1		0
	NI Women's Coalition	0	1	0
	UKIP	0	1	0
	UK Unionist	0	2	0
	Other	96	26	0
	No overall control	n/a	n/a	4	9

Like in 2001, many results were in line with the general election on the same day.

The Liberal Democrats gained Cornwall, whilst simultaneously winning Camborne & Falmouth from Labour, and thus holding every parliamentary seat in Cornwall. Similarly in Somerset too, where they regained Taunton from the Conservatives.

The Conservative gain in Gloucestershire coincided with their gain of Forest of Dean from Labour, the swing towards them in Cheltenham where the previous Lib Dem MP had retired and their near-miss result where Labour narrowly held on to Stroud. Worcestershire's result coincided with reduced Labour majorities in Worcester and Redditch, whilst overtaking Labour for second place in Wyre Forest. The Isle of Wight was also in line with the general election, which saw a huge increase in the Conservative majority on the island.

Northamptonshire coincided with Labour's losses in Kettering, Wellingborough and Northampton South, all of which were extremely marginal seats that the Conservatives narrowly lost in 1997 and where they failed to make any progress in 2001. Shropshire similarly coincided with 3 gains in the general elections for the Conservatives, where they took The Wrekin and Shrewsbury & Atcham from Labour and took Ludlow from the Liberal Democrats. Suffolk coincided with no actual seat gains in the general election, but swings to the Conservatives of at least 3% in all seven constituencies. The swings were larger in their own five constituencies, with a swing of almost 7% in Bury St Edmunds.

The Liberal Democrat gain in Devon, however, happened despite a mixed bag of results in the general election. They lost Devon West & Torridge to the Conservatives, and in Torbay, the Conservatives reduced their majority. There were small swings to the Lib Dems in Totnes, Teignbridge and Devon North, though a big swing away from them in Tiverton and Honiton.

England

Non-metropolitan county councils

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

‡ New electoral division 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

Council Control

Source: ARK research and knowledge group

References

1. BBC News Election 2005
2. Local Government Elections 2005, Northern Ireland, ARK research and knowledge group

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

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Local elections	1889 1890 1892 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
European elections	1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019
Referendums	1975 2011 2016
See also Elections in England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Great Britain

v t e (2004 ←)   2005 United Kingdom local elections   (→ 2006)
County council elections	Bedfordshire Buckinghamshire Cambridgeshire Cheshire Cornwall Cumbria Derbyshire Devon Dorset Durham East Sussex Essex Gloucestershire Hampshire Hertfordshire Kent Lancashire Leicestershire Lincolnshire Norfolk North Yorkshire Northamptonshire Northumberland Nottinghamshire Oxfordshire Shropshire Somerset Staffordshire Suffolk Surrey Warwickshire West Sussex Wiltshire Worcestershire
Unitary authorities	Bristol Isle of Wight Stockton-on-Tees
District councils (Northern Ireland)	Antrim Ards Armagh Ballymena Ballymoney Banbridge Belfast Carrickfergus Castlereagh Coleraine Cookstown Craigavon Derry Down Dungannon and South Tyrone Fermanagh Larne Limavady Lisburn Magherafelt Moyle Newry and Mourne Newtownabbey North Down Omagh Strabane
Sui generis	Isles of Scilly
Mayoral elections	Doncaster Hartlepool North Tyneside Stoke-on-Trent
See also: UK General election

• 2005 United Kingdom local elections
• Council elections in the United Kingdom
• 2005 elections in the United Kingdom
• Premiership of Tony Blair