Overall results

Party		Councillors		Councils		Votes		Projected national equivalent[n 1]
		Number	Change	Number	Change	Number[15]	Share
	Labour	2,353	79	74		3,154,753	41.2%	35%
	Conservative	1,332	35	46	3	2,444,204	31.9%	35%
	Liberal Democrats	542	76	9	4	1,067,660	13.9%	16%
	Green	39	8	0		500,580	6.5%	14%
	UKIP	3	123	0		101,866	1.3%
	Independent	96	17	0		392,139	5.2%
	Residents	44	3	0
	Liberal	1	1	0
	PATH	1	1	0
	Harold Hill Independent	1	1	0
	No overall control	—		21	1	—	—	—

Results in London

The following table shows the aggregate results for the 32 councils that were up for election in London.

Party		Councillors		Councils
		Number	Change†	Number	Change
	Labour	1,128	67	21	1
	Conservative	508	92	7	2
	Liberal Democrats	152	34	3	2
	Residents	25	2	0
	Green	11	7	0
	Independent	7	5	0
	UKIP	0	9	0
	PATH	1	1	0
	Harold Hill Independent	1	1	0
	No overall control	—		1	1

^†Due to boundary changes, the figures for seat losses/gains are notional changes calculated by the BBC, and do not match up precisely to the London-wide results in 2014.

Results outside of London

The following table shows the aggregate results for the 118 councils that were up for election outside of London.

Party		Councillors		Councils
		Number	Change	Number	Change
	Labour	1,225	12	53	1
	Conservative	824	57	39	1
	Liberal Democrats	390	42	6	2
	Independent	89	12	0
	Green	28	1	0
	Residents	21		0
	UKIP	3	114	0
	Liberal	1	1	0
	No overall control	—		20

Only four councils switched from a majority for one party to another. The Conservatives gained Redditch from Labour, and lost control of three councils to the Liberal Democrats: Kingston upon Thames, Richmond upon Thames and South Cambridgeshire. The Liberal Democrats also gained Three Rivers District Council from no overall control. Labour gained a majority on three councils that had been under no overall control (Kirklees, Plymouth and Tower Hamlets) while losing their majority on two (Derby and Nuneaton and Bedworth). The Conservatives gained a majority on one council that had been under no overall control (Basildon) while losing their majority on two (Mole Valley and Trafford).^[16]

Labour won the inaugural mayoral election for the Sheffield City Region. Five other mayoral elections saw no change in the winning party: Labour held four and the Liberal Democrats held one.

Analysis

This was the first set of local elections since the 2017 general election. Most of the seats up for election had last been contested in the 2014 local elections.

Because the group of local councils varies with each cycle of local elections, the BBC and other analysts calculated a projected national vote share, which aims to assess what the council results indicate the UK-wide vote would be if the results were repeated at a general election. The BBC's estimate put Labour on 35% of the vote (up 8% since 2017), the Conservatives on 35% (down 3%), the Liberal Democrats on 16% (down 2%).^[17] In the May 2017 local elections, the projected national voteshare was 38% for the Conservatives, 27% for Labour, 18% for the Liberal Democrats and 5% for UKIP. When votes were still being counted, media reports widely described the result as "mixed" for both Labour and the Conservatives.^[18] The results suggested that support for the parties had not moved much since the general election 11 months earlier.^[19] Some reports considered the results a relief for Theresa May and the Conservatives.^[20][21]

Ben Margulies, a research fellow at the University of Warwick, noted how the United Kingdom Independence Party's collapse in vote share directly benefited the Conservatives as they committed to exiting the European Union. Margulies stated that the Conservatives' position with the electorate will "remain perched on a precipice".^[22] Matthew Mokhefi-Ashton, a politics lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, argued that Labour had set their expectations too high and thus made the actual result look disappointing by comparison.^[23] David Cutts, a professor of political science at the University of Birmingham, described the Liberal Democrats' performance in the election as "underwhelming" in contrast to the media response, arguing that the party only made moderate gains in their strongholds from before the Liberal-Conservative coalition and council areas that were seen as "Strong Remain" and "Strong Leave". Cutts argued that the next local elections in England are a greater test of their stability as they feature substantially more strongholds.^[24]

Whole council

4 metropolitan boroughs had all of their seats up for election following boundary changes.

One-third of council

One third of the seats in 30 metropolitan boroughs were up for election:

Whole council

One unitary authority had all of its seats up for election following boundary changes.

Third of council

One third of the council seats were up for election in 16 unitary authorities.

Whole council

Seven non-metropolitan districts have all of their seats up for election.

Half of council

Six non-metropolitan districts have half of their seats up for election.

Third of council

54 district councils had one third of their seats up for election. Weymouth and Portland originally had elections scheduled for 2018, but the elections were postponed indefinitely following a decision to merge the council into a unitary Dorset Council from 2019 onwards.^[121][122]

These were the last elections to Daventry District Council, following the decision to abolish it along with Northamptonshire County Council and its 7 district councils into two unitary authorities in 2020.

Combined authorities

Local authorities