2011 United Kingdom local elections

Elections were due to be held to Scottish councils, but these have been postponed until 2012 to avoid clashing with the elections to the Scottish Parliament, which in 2007 had caused confusion among voters.[7]

British, Irish, Commonwealth and European Union citizens living in the UK who were 18 or over on election day were entitled to vote in the local council and devolved legislatures elections. The deadline for voters in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to register to vote in the 5 May elections was midnight on Thursday 14 April 2011, whilst voters in Scotland had until midnight on Friday 15 April 2011 to register. Anyone in the United Kingdom who qualified as an anonymous elector had until midnight on Tuesday 26 April 2011 to register.[8]

The Labour Party was described as obtaining "mixed results".[9] Their support recovered following a string of poor local election results during Gordon Brown's tenure and they gained over 800 council seats, mostly off the Liberal Democrats. Labour's gains were overshadowed by the coinciding Scottish Parliament election where they were routed by the Scottish National Party. The Conservatives narrowly obtained more votes than Labour and gained a small number of seats. They were helped by the gaining additional seats from the Liberal Democrats in the south west, south, south east and East Anglia.

The election was a disaster for the Liberal Democrats, who lost 40% of the council seats they were defending (mostly to Labour) and lost majorities in 9 of the 19 councils they controlled, including strongholds in Sheffield and Hull. There were some surprising gains for the Conservatives against the Liberal Democrats, with councils previously considered strongholds for the latter, like North Norfolk, Vale of White Horse and Lewes changing hands. This led to some calls for Nick Clegg to resign.[10] The losses coincided with the landslide rejection of the Alternative Vote referendum which had been supported by the Liberal Democrats and some members of the Labour Party.

Party		Councillors		Councils
		Number	Change	Number	Change
	Conservative	5,109	86	157	4
	Labour	2,459	857	57	26
	Liberal Democrats	1,098	748	10	9
	DUP	175	3	0	2
	Sinn Féin	138	9	1	1
	Ulster Unionist	99	16	0
	SDLP	87	14	0
	Green	79	14	0
	Neighborhood association	48	3	1
	Alliance	44	14	0
	UKIP	8	1	0
	Liberal	8	2	0
	TUV	6	6	0
	Green (NI)	3		0
	BNP	2	11	0
	PUP	2		0
	Others	667	201	0
	No overall control	n/a	n/a	79	17

Source:[11] and Vote 2011: Northern Ireland Council Elections

Summary of English result

Party		Councillors		Councils
		Number	Change	Number	Change
	Conservative	5,109	86	157	4
	Labour	2,459	857	57	26
	Liberal Democrats	1,098	748	10	9
	Green	79	14	0
	Neighborhood association	48	3	1
	Liberal	8	2	0
	UKIP	7	0	0
	BNP	2	11	0
	Others	640	207	0
	No overall control	n/a	n/a	54	19

Source:[11]

Elections were held on the same day to local government in Northern Ireland.[12]