# 2005 United Kingdom local elections

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 | Party | Councillors | Councillors | Councils | Councils |
| Party | Party | 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.
| Council | Previous control | Result | Details |
| Bedfordshire ‡ | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details |
| Buckinghamshire ‡ | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details |
| Cambridgeshire ‡ | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details |
| Cheshire | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details |
| Cornwall ‡ | No overall control | Liberal Democrats gain | Details |
| Cumbria | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details |
| Derbyshire ‡ | Labour | Labour hold | Details |
| Devon ‡ | No overall control | Liberal Democrats gain | Details |
| Dorset ‡ | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details |
| Durham ‡ | Labour | Labour hold | Details |
| East Sussex ‡ | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details |
| Essex ‡ | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details |
| Gloucestershire ‡ | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details |
| Hampshire ‡ | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details |
| Hertfordshire | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details |
| Kent ‡ | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details |
| Lancashire ‡ | Labour | Labour hold | Details |
| Leicestershire ‡ | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details |
| Lincolnshire | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details |
| Norfolk ‡ | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details |
| North Yorkshire ‡ | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details |
| Northamptonshire | Labour | Conservative gain | Details |
| Northumberland | Labour | Labour hold | Details |
| Nottinghamshire ‡ | Labour | Labour hold | Details |
| Oxfordshire ‡ | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details |
| Shropshire ‡ | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details |
| Somerset | No overall control | Liberal Democrats gain | Details |
| Staffordshire ‡ | Labour | Labour hold | Details |
| Suffolk ‡ | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details |
| Surrey ‡ | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details |
| Warwickshire ‡ | No overall control | No overall control hold | Details |
| West Sussex ‡ | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details |
| Wiltshire ‡ | Conservative | Conservative hold | Details |
| Worcestershire ‡ | No overall control | Conservative gain | Details |
‡ 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.
| Council | Previous control | Previous control | Result | Result | Details |
| Isle of Wight | | No overall control | | Conservative gain | Details |
| Stockton-on-Tees ‡ | | Labour | | No overall control gain | Details |
‡ New ward boundaries

#### Third of council

| Council | Previous control | Previous control | Result | Result | Details |
| Bristol | | No overall control | | No overall control hold | Details |

### Sui generis

| Council | Previous control | Previous control | Result | Result | Details |
| Isles of Scilly | | Independent | | Independent hold | Details |

### Mayoral elections

Four direct mayoral elections were held.
| Local Authority | Previous Mayor | Mayor-elect | Details |
| Doncaster | Martin Winter (Labour) | Martin Winter (Labour) | |
| Hartlepool | Stuart Drummond (Independent) | Stuart Drummond (Independent) | |
| North Tyneside | Linda Arkley (Conservative) | John Harrison (Labour) | Details |
| Stoke-on-Trent | Mike Wolfe (Independent) | Mark Meredith (Labour) | |

## 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

| Party | Party | Councillors | Councillors | Votes | Votes |
| Party | Party | Change | Total | % share | Total |
| | DUP | +51 | 182 | 30 | 208,278 |
| | Sinn Féin | +18 | 126 | 23 | 163,205 |
| | UUP | -39 | 115 | 18 | 126,317 |
| | SDLP | -16 | 101 | 17 | 121,991 |
| | Alliance | +2 | 30 | 5 | 35,149 |
| | Independent | -14 | 20 | 4 | 27,677 |
| | Green (NI) | +3 | 3 | 1 | 5,703 |
| | PUP | -2 | 2 | 1 | 4,591 |
| | United Unionist | 0 | 2 | 0.3 | 2,064 |
| | Newtownabbey Ratepayers | 0 | 1 | 0.3 | 1,897 |
| | Socialist Environmental | 0 | 0 | 0.2 | 1,321 |
| | NI Conservatives | 0 | 0 | 0.2 | 1,164 |
| | Workers' Party | 0 | 0 | 0.1 | 1,052 |
| | Socialist Party | 0 | 0 | 0.1 | 828 |
| | NI Women's Coalition | -1 | 0 | 0.1 | 738 |
| | UK Unionist | -2 | 0 | 0.1 | 734 |

### Council Control

| Council | Previous control | Result | Details |
| Antrim | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Ards | No overall control | DUP | Details |
| Armagh | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Ballymena | No overall control | DUP | Details |
| Ballymoney | DUP | DUP | Details |
| Banbridge | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Belfast | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Carrickfergus | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Castlereagh | No overall control | DUP | Details |
| Coleraine | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Cookstown | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Craigavon | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Derry | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Down | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Dungannon and South Tyrone | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Fermanagh | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Larne | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Limavady | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Lisburn | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Magherafelt | No overall control | Sinn Féin | Details |
| Moyle | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Newry and Mourne | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Newtownabbey | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| North Down | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Omagh | No overall control | No overall control | Details |
| Strabane | No overall control | Sinn Féin | Details |
Source: ARK research and knowledge group