The 2023 South Holland District Council election took place on 4 May 2023, to elect all 37 members of South Holland District Council in Lincolnshire, England. This was on the same day as other local elections across England.
Prior to the election the council was under Conservative majority control. At the previous election in 2019 every elected candidate had been either a Conservative or an independent councillor. In 2021 a group of the independent councillors formed a registered political party, the "South Holland Independents".[1] By the time of the 2023 election seven of the independent councillors had joined the South Holland Independents. They sat on the council as a group with four of the other seven independent councillors as the "South Holland Independents and Independents" group. The other three independent councillors (all of whom had been elected as Conservatives) did not belong to any group.[2][3]
Following the results, the Conservatives retained overall control, but with a reduced majority. Their leader, Gary Porter, who had been leader of the council since 2003, lost his seat.[4] Nick Worth was appointed the new leader of the council at the subsequent annual council meeting on 17 May 2023.[5] The South Holland Independents won 15 seats and the other three seats were won by other independent councillors. The South Holland Independents and independents formed a single group of 18 councillors after the election called the "Independent Group".[6]
The results for each ward were as follows, with an asterisk (*) indicating sitting councillors standing for re-election.[2]
Jane King had been elected as an independent in 2019; seat shown here as South Holland Independents gain from independent to allow comparison with 2019 results. Henry Bingham had been elected as an independent in 2019 but joined the Conservatives in 2021; seat shown here as Conservative gain from independent.[8]Margaret Geaney has previously been a councillor for the Bletchley West Ward (Milton Keynes) Between 2015 and 2019 [9]
Francis Biggadike had been elected in 2019 as a Conservative but left the party early in 2023 after not being selected as the party's candidate for this election.[10]
Shown as two gains for South Holland Independents from independents to allow comparison with 2019 results. Stephen Timewell had won his seat for the Conservatives in a by-election in 2022. The other seat was held by Anthony Cronin, who was elected as an independent in 2019 but who subsequently joined the South Holland Independents. He did not stand for re-election.[2]
Manzur Hasan had been elected in 2019 as an independent councillor but had subsequently joined the South Holland Independents. The other seat had been held by Jack McLean prior to the election, who had been elected in 2019 as a Conservative but left the party in October 2020 and sat as a non-aligned independent for the remainder of his term. He did not stand for re-election.
Rob Gibson had been elected in 2019 as an independent but had subsequently been one of the founder members of the South Holland Independents, of which he was the leader.
Peter Coupland had been the councillor for Fleet ward immediately before the election. Michael Booth and Christopher Brewis had both been elected in 2019 as independents but subsequently joined the South Holland Independents.
Michael Seymour had been elected as a Conservative in 2019 but left the party early in 2023 after not being selected as the party's candidate for this election.
This by-election was triggered by the resignation of South Holland Independents councillor Bailey Boulding.[11] The result of the by-election was a tie which was resolved by drawing lots.[12][13]