England local elections, May 2015

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Labour have a rather better night in Rotherham than last year, winning seventeen wards out of twenty.

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Labour up two in Birmingham (finally taking Weoley off the Tories while knocking off a LibDem in Stechford & Yardley North).

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Somewhat surprisingly Labour are still the largest party on Telford & Wrekin council (27 seats out of 54).

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The unpopular Labour administration in Stoke has lost its majority but has not suffered the heavy defeat some were expecting: Labour 21, City Independents 14, Con 7, UKIP 2.

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but Labour won everything else.

Including the ward vacated by the now quite thoroughly hated former council leader, lol.

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Thanet council is a notorious basket case, so that's not really a surprise.

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Talking of basket cases, Greens get trashed in Brighton & Hove but not wiped out: Labour 23, Con 20, Greens 11.

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Co-operation is extremely rare.

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UKIP gained Little Lever from Labour [vomits].

Weird. Is there a story to that?

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The Continuity SDP lost their last seat in Bridlington. To UKIP.

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Winning party by ward for the boroughs in the old West Midlands metropolitan county.

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And the same for the West Yorkshire boroughs.

Much to note, but it appears that we were biradaried in Keighley Central.

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And now the boroughs of Greater Manchester. Note that there was a double vacancy in Westhoughton North & Chew Moor that split 1 Tory, 1 Labour: the ward is coloured in blue as the Tories polled more votes.

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And for those for South Yorkshire SSR. Note that Doncaster had all out elections on new ward boundaries. There were three split wards: I have coloured them according to the party that topped the poll.

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Remember this from last year?

Does anyone here remember Alan Amos? The right-wing Conservative MP for Hexham who quit the Commons at the 1992 election after an 'incident' on Hampstead Heath, and who later defected to Labour in the mid 1990s after claiming to have Seen The Light? And who was then a Labour councillor in Tower Hamlets until he lost his seat in 2006? And who re-emerged as a councillor in Worcester a few years later?

Well this lacks dignity.

The beloved and respected Mr Amos has now gone all the way and re-joined the Conservative Party.

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And the Merseyside soviets.

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When was the last time the Tories won in either Short Heath or Willenhall North, local LibDem & UKIP strongholds?

Not sure, but it's always been obvious that much of the local LibDem vote there voted Tory in General Elections.

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Doing the Wirral part of the map reminded me that the inclusion of Upton in Wirral West is basically electoral trolling.

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Results in Stoke-on-Trent:



The unpopular Labour administration held onto more seats than expected, only narrowly failing to retain its majority. But all of the other groups have decided to form a rag-tag-and-bobtail coalition together. Those who have followed the wonder that is local politics in Stoke over the years will already know exactly what will happen next...

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The Local Government Boundary Commission for England moves in mysterious ways.

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Staffordshire (post-1974). Split wards treated in the usual way, the three dark wards in Newcastle under Lyme had no election.

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Medway Towns UA.

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Derbyshire districts. Usual treatment of split wards. Dark wards in Amber Valley had no election this year.

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Kent:



Usual comments apply, though there were a lot of split wards here and some very odd nomination strategies by some parties in places. So be careful.

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No election.