Liberal Democrats › 2024
Liberal Democrats in 2024
Polling day: 2 May 2024. 107 councils held elections.
Summary
- Contested in 98 of 107 councils; ran for 2,466 seats.
- Won 522 seats (21.2% of seats up) on 17.0% of the vote.
- Net change vs each council's last appearance in this dataset: +62 seats across 29 councils up, 28 councils down, 40 flat, 1 new to the window.
- Council-control change: 4 gained, 0 lost.
Same votes, different counting rule
Compare the seats Liberal Democrats actually won under FPTP with a proportional re-count of the same council-level votes. Positive means seats unfairly awarded by FPTP; negative means seats the party was denied by FPTP.
Where Liberal Democrats led, as of 2024
Councils where Liberal Democrats was the largest single party in the most recent composition snapshot at or before 2024. Greens ring councils gained at this election; reds ring those lost. Click any hex to drill in.
As of 2024
61 councils led
+4 gained this cycle
Grey hexes are councils where another party led, or where we don't have a snapshot for that year.
Council-control changes
Councils where the largest party in the running composition changed at this election. How a flip is defined →
Gained (4)
- Cherwell from Conservative Party
- Gloucester from Conservative Party
- Dorset from Conservative Party
- Hart from Conservative Party
Where the seats came from
Per-council net seat change vs each council's prior appearance in our dataset (typically that council's previous all-out election or its last by-thirds slice). "Debut" rows are councils whose first cycle in our window is 2024 — usually the result of a boundary reorganisation or being a county outside our 2021 LEH coverage.
Seats gained (29 councils)
| Council | Won | Last cycle | Net | Vote share | Seat share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cheltenham | 36 | 18 (2022) | +18 | 51.9% | 90.0% |
| Tunbridge Wells | 22 | 5 (2023) | +17 | 34.2% | 56.4% |
| Wokingham | 27 | 11 (2023) | +16 | 41.3% | 50.0% |
| Dorset | 42 | 29 (2019) | +13 | 37.3% | 51.2% |
| North Hertfordshire | 19 | 8 (2023) | +11 | 29.3% | 37.3% |
| Brentwood | 17 | 7 (2023) | +10 | 39.9% | 43.6% |
| Tandridge | 11 | 3 (2023) | +8 | 16.4% | 25.6% |
| Gloucester | 17 | 10 (2021) | +7 | 32.8% | 43.6% |
| Maidstone | 12 | 5 (2023) | +7 | 19.5% | 24.5% |
| Fareham | 8 | 3 (2022) | +5 | 28.1% | 25.0% |
| Havant | 7 | 2 (2023) | +5 | 20.6% | 19.4% |
| Warrington | 12 | 8 (2021) | +4 | 17.2% | 20.7% |
| Epping Forest | 7 | 3 (2023) | +4 | 14.5% | 13.0% |
| Stevenage | 6 | 2 (2023) | +4 | 17.3% | 15.4% |
| Cherwell | 8 | 5 (2023) | +3 | 28.3% | 50.0% |
| Preston | 6 | 3 (2023) | +3 | 30.8% | 37.5% |
| Worcester | 5 | 2 (2023) | +3 | 14.2% | 14.3% |
| Dudley | 3 | 0 (2023) | +3 | 5.7% | 4.2% |
| St Albans | 17 | 15 (2023) | +2 | 49.9% | 81.0% |
| Watford | 11 | 9 (2023) | +2 | 48.2% | 91.7% |
| Woking | 10 | 8 (2023) | +2 | 53.7% | 90.9% |
| Bradford | 3 | 1 (2023) | +2 | 7.4% | 10.0% |
| West Oxfordshire | 7 | 6 (2023) | +1 | 30.4% | 41.2% |
| Hart | 5 | 4 (2023) | +1 | 30.3% | 41.7% |
| Oxford | 5 | 4 (2022) | +1 | 15.2% | 20.0% |
| Basingstoke and Deane | 4 | 3 (2023) | +1 | 18.2% | 22.2% |
| Runnymede | 3 | 2 (2023) | +1 | 20.1% | 21.4% |
| Reigate and Banstead | 2 | 1 (2023) | +1 | 14.3% | 12.5% |
| Salford | 1 | 0 (2023) | +1 | 5.6% | 4.8% |
Seats lost (28 councils)
| Council | Won | Last cycle | Net | Vote share | Seat share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stockport | 11 | 30 (2023) | -19 | 34.2% | 52.4% |
| Mole Valley | 12 | 30 (2023) | -18 | 47.4% | 85.7% |
| Gosport | 8 | 16 (2022) | -8 | 36.7% | 53.3% |
| Oldham | 3 | 10 (2023) | -7 | 14.2% | 15.0% |
| Sheffield | 7 | 11 (2023) | -4 | 21.7% | 24.1% |
| Trafford | 2 | 6 (2023) | -4 | 11.4% | 9.5% |
| Bolton | 2 | 6 (2023) | -4 | 7.6% | 9.5% |
| Newcastle Upon Tyne | 7 | 10 (2023) | -3 | 24.8% | 25.9% |
| Winchester | 11 | 13 (2023) | -2 | 47.7% | 78.6% |
| Eastleigh | 10 | 12 (2023) | -2 | 47.7% | 83.3% |
| Kingston Upon Hull, City of | 9 | 11 (2023) | -2 | 44.0% | 47.4% |
| Elmbridge | 7 | 9 (2023) | -2 | 38.6% | 43.8% |
| Colchester | 4 | 6 (2023) | -2 | 22.9% | 22.2% |
| Welwyn Hatfield | 4 | 6 (2023) | -2 | 21.4% | 25.0% |
| Peterborough | 2 | 4 (2023) | -2 | 9.4% | 8.7% |
| Three Rivers | 7 | 8 (2023) | -1 | 42.3% | 53.8% |
| Gateshead | 6 | 7 (2023) | -1 | 25.8% | 27.3% |
| Sunderland | 4 | 5 (2023) | -1 | 15.4% | 16.0% |
| Cambridge | 3 | 4 (2023) | -1 | 21.9% | 21.4% |
| Sefton | 3 | 4 (2023) | -1 | 16.8% | 13.6% |
| Kirklees | 3 | 4 (2023) | -1 | 12.3% | 13.0% |
| Solihull | 2 | 3 (2023) | -1 | 13.8% | 11.8% |
| Southampton | 2 | 3 (2023) | -1 | 12.8% | 11.8% |
| Stroud | 2 | 3 (2021) | -1 | 6.7% | 3.9% |
| Manchester | 1 | 2 (2023) | -1 | 10.9% | 3.0% |
| Exeter | 1 | 2 (2023) | -1 | 10.3% | 7.7% |
| Knowsley | 1 | 2 (2023) | -1 | 3.8% | 6.7% |
| Swindon | 0 | 1 (2023) | -1 | 9.5% | 0.0% |
Debut councils (1)
| Council | Won | Vote share | Seat share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nuneaton and Bedworth | 0 | 0.1% | 0.0% |
No change (40)
- Bristol, City of 8 seats (unchanged from 2021)
- Portsmouth 7 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Milton Keynes 6 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Rochford 4 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Barnsley 4 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Rugby 3 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Pendle 3 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Rotherham 3 seats (unchanged from 2021)
- Lincoln 2 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Calderdale 2 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Leeds 2 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Burnley 2 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Rochdale 1 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- North East Lincolnshire 1 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Norwich 1 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Southend-On-Sea 1 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Reading 1 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Halton 1 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Rushmoor 1 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Ipswich 1 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Wakefield 1 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Basildon 0 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Worthing 0 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Broxbourne 0 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Plymouth 0 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Redditch 0 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Coventry 0 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Bury 0 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Wolverhampton 0 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Sandwell 0 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Walsall 0 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Adur 0 seats (unchanged from 2022)
- Wigan 0 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- West Lancashire 0 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Hastings 0 seats (unchanged from 2022)
- Chorley 0 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Tameside 0 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- North Tyneside 0 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Tamworth 0 seats (unchanged from 2023)
- Harlow 0 seats (unchanged from 2023)
Net-change comparisons are versus each council's most recent appearance in our dataset (2021–2026). For all-out councils that's the previous all-out cycle (typically four years prior); for by-thirds councils it's last year's slice. Cross-cycle ward boundary changes can produce small artefacts — see methodology.