UK local elections delivered record-breaking fragmentation of the vote

Local elections in numbers: Maps and charts reveal scale of Reform win

The Independent’s data correspondent Alicja Hagopian crunches the numbers from this year’s local elections

UK local elections delivered record-breaking fragmentation of the vote

If there were such a thing as landslide victories for local elections, Reform could easily claim to have won one in 2025. Out of the 1,641 seats available, Nigel Farage’s party came away with 677 – that’s more than 41%. The Liberal Democrats came second with 370 (a net gain of 163). Overall, only a quarter of seats went to the two main parties combined – the Conservatives on 319 (down 677) and Labour 98 (down 189). Looking at the ward-level resu…

Local elections in England delivered record-breaking fragmentation of the vote

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. Photo read: PA/PA Wire Hannah Bunting, Senior Lecturer in Quantitative British Politics and Co-director of The Elections Centre, University of Exeter If there were such a thing as landslide victories for local elections, Reform could easily claim to have won one in 2025. Out of the 1,641 seats available, Nigel Farage’s party came away with 677 – that’s more than 41%. The Liberal Democrats came second with 370 (a ne…