Political make-up of local councils in the United Kingdom

[1] Because of this disparate system, various local elections take place every year, but changes in party representation arise frequently regardless due to resignations, deaths, by-elections, co-options and changes of affiliation.

Last full update: 2 May 2024[11][12][13][14][15][16][17] The table below shows who has political control of each of the 21 non-metropolitan county councils (NMC), the 62 unitary authorities (UA), the 36 metropolitan districts (MD), the 32 London boroughs (LB) as well as the 2 sui generis entities: the City of London (CL) and the Isles of Scilly (IS).

All parties apart from the Conservatives (CON), Labour (LAB) and Liberal Democrats (LDM); as well as independents, are grouped in the category: OTHER.

The three island councils (Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles) are each controlled by local independents.

Political control may be held by minority governments (min), coalitions (co), joint leadership arrangements (j.l.)

Uniquely in the UK, vacancies are filled by co-option by whichever party won the seat at the previous election.

Map showing political control of the 152 Local authorities in England (doesn't show non-metropolitan districts or the Isles of Scilly). Bright colours represents control of a single party, pastel colours represent the leading party in a coalition government. Blue is for CON, red for LAB, orange for LDM, green for GRN and grey for IND/OTHER.
The largest party in each borough council. Red denotes the Labour Party; blue denotes the Conservatives; yellow denotes the Liberal Democrats; and grey denotes independent candidates.