The 2016 United Kingdom local elections held on Thursday 5 May 2016 were a series of local elections which were held in 124 local councils and also saw 4 mayoral elections in England which also coincided with elections to the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly, the Northern Ireland Assembly, the London Assembly, the London mayoral election and the England and Wales Police and crime commissioners.[4][5] By-elections for the Westminster seats of Ogmore and Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough were also held. These proved to be David Cameron's last local elections as leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister as he resigned two months later following the defeat of Remain in the referendum on Britain's continuing membership of the European Union which was held seven weeks later.
Full results as reported by BBC News.[6]
As these local elections were held in 124 English councils, out of 418 in the whole of the UK, the BBC calculated a Projected National Vote Share (PNV), which aims to assess what the council results indicate the UK-wide vote would be "if the results were repeated at a general election".[7]
The BBC's Projected National Vote Share was 31% for Labour, 30% for the Conservatives, 15% for the Liberal Democrats and 12% for UKIP.[7] These results are included in the infobox for this article. Longstanding elections analysts Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher of Plymouth University estimate a National Equivalent Vote (NEV) share, and in 2016 put Labour on 33%, the Conservatives on 31%, the Liberal Democrats on 14% and UKIP on 12%.[8]
David Cameron celebrated the results, stating that his party did well despite being in office for six years up to that point.[9] The results were viewed as mixed or poor for Labour. Jeremy Corbyn claimed that the results were better than anticipated, given that Labour was expected to lose more councillors and councils.[10] [11] [12] The Liberal Democrats failed to win back areas where they lost seats in prior elections, though they did make a slight recovery after heavy losses in 2015. UKIP was also assessed to have underperformed, given its association with the upcoming 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.[13]
Three of 36 metropolitan boroughs had all of their seats up for election.[14]
32 of 36 metropolitan boroughs had one-third of their seats up for election.[14]
3 unitary authorities had all of their seats up for election.[14]
16 unitary authorities had one-third of their seats up for election.[14]
12 District Councils had all of their seats up for election.[14]
7 non-metropolitan district councils had half of their seats up for election.[14]
51 non-metropolitan district councils had one-third of their seats up for election.[14]
Four direct mayoral elections were held.[14]
40 elections for Police and Crime Commissioners were held.