Liberal Democrats › 2017
Liberal Democrats in 2017
Polling day: 4 May 2017. 113 councils held elections.
Summary
- Contested in 103 of 113 councils; ran for 3,495 seats.
- Won 382 seats (10.9% of seats up) on 15.8% of the vote.
- Net change vs each council's last appearance in this dataset: -120 seats across 2 councils up, 30 councils down, 8 flat, 63 new to the window.
Where Liberal Democrats led, as of 2017
Councils where Liberal Democrats was the largest single party in the most recent composition snapshot at or before 2017. Greens ring councils gained at this election; reds ring those lost. Click any hex to drill in.
As of 2017
9 councils led
Grey hexes are councils where another party led, or where we don't have a snapshot for that year.
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 2017 — usually the result of a boundary reorganisation or being a county outside our 2021 LEH coverage.
Seats gained (2 councils)
| Council | Won | Last cycle | Net | Vote share | Seat share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gloucestershire | 14 | 1 (2016) | +13 | 27.4% | 26.4% |
| Swansea | 7 | 0 (2016) | +7 | 10.2% | 9.7% |
Seats lost (30 councils)
| Council | Won | Last cycle | Net | Vote share | Seat share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Watford | 2 | 25 (2016) | -23 | 51.6% | 66.7% |
| Sheffield | 0 | 19 (2016) | -19 | 20.4% | 0.0% |
| Cheltenham | 1 | 15 (2016) | -14 | 51.9% | 100.0% |
| Eastleigh | 1 | 13 (2016) | -12 | 50.4% | 100.0% |
| Maidstone | 0 | 8 (2016) | -8 | 10.6% | 0.0% |
| South Lakeland | 1 | 8 (2016) | -7 | 50.9% | 100.0% |
| Welwyn Hatfield | 0 | 5 (2016) | -5 | 36.9% | 0.0% |
| South Cambridgeshire | 0 | 5 (2016) | -5 | 30.3% | 0.0% |
| Cambridge | 0 | 4 (2016) | -4 | 36.6% | 0.0% |
| Weymouth and Portland | 0 | 4 (2016) | -4 | 25.5% | 0.0% |
| Oxford | 0 | 4 (2016) | -4 | 13.1% | 0.0% |
| Bradford | 0 | 4 (2016) | -4 | 3.5% | 0.0% |
| Liverpool | 0 | 3 (2016) | -3 | 22.7% | 0.0% |
| Huntingdonshire | 0 | 3 (2016) | -3 | 17.7% | 0.0% |
| Rugby | 0 | 3 (2016) | -3 | 6.5% | 0.0% |
| Birmingham | 1 | 3 (2016) | -2 | 33.2% | 50.0% |
| Blackburn with Darwen | 0 | 2 (2016) | -2 | 32.2% | 0.0% |
| North Hertfordshire | 0 | 2 (2016) | -2 | 25.4% | 0.0% |
| West Oxfordshire | 0 | 2 (2016) | -2 | 23.0% | 0.0% |
| Wirral | 0 | 2 (2016) | -2 | 22.0% | 0.0% |
| Preston | 0 | 2 (2016) | -2 | 11.8% | 0.0% |
| Trafford | 0 | 2 (2016) | -2 | 6.2% | 0.0% |
| Exeter | 0 | 1 (2016) | -1 | 26.7% | 0.0% |
| Manchester | 0 | 1 (2016) | -1 | 16.9% | 0.0% |
| Bury | 0 | 1 (2016) | -1 | 15.1% | 0.0% |
| Daventry | 0 | 1 (2016) | -1 | 11.0% | 0.0% |
| Stevenage | 0 | 1 (2016) | -1 | 5.7% | 0.0% |
| Carlisle | 0 | 1 (2016) | -1 | 4.2% | 0.0% |
| Wyre Forest | 0 | 1 (2016) | -1 | 3.8% | 0.0% |
| Ipswich | 0 | 1 (2016) | -1 | 3.3% | 0.0% |
Debut councils (63)
| Council | Won | Vote share | Seat share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cornwall | 38 | 30.1% | 30.9% |
| Wiltshire | 20 | 26.8% | 20.6% |
| Hampshire | 19 | 26.9% | 24.4% |
| Hertfordshire | 18 | 25.2% | 23.1% |
| Cumbria | 16 | 17.9% | 19.0% |
| Cambridgeshire | 15 | 29.8% | 24.6% |
| Durham | 14 | 13.4% | 11.1% |
| Oxfordshire | 13 | 25.1% | 20.6% |
| Leicestershire | 13 | 21.1% | 23.6% |
| Somerset | 12 | 31.4% | 21.8% |
| Shropshire | 12 | 20.5% | 16.4% |
| Powys | 12 | 19.3% | 21.4% |
| Dorset | 11 | 24.8% | 23.9% |
| East Sussex | 11 | 22.8% | 22.0% |
| Norfolk | 11 | 17.4% | 13.1% |
| Cardiff | 11 | 15.8% | 14.7% |
| Surrey | 9 | 22.8% | 11.1% |
| West Sussex | 9 | 19.2% | 12.9% |
| Ceredigion | 8 | 22.8% | 23.5% |
| Devon | 7 | 21.6% | 11.7% |
| Warwickshire | 7 | 16.0% | 12.3% |
| Kent | 7 | 14.1% | 8.6% |
| Essex | 7 | 13.7% | 9.3% |
| Suffolk | 5 | 12.9% | 6.7% |
| Flintshire | 5 | 8.0% | 8.9% |
| Buckinghamshire | 4 | 18.6% | 8.2% |
| Lancashire | 4 | 9.5% | 4.8% |
| Conwy | 4 | 8.9% | 7.5% |
| North Yorkshire | 3 | 12.7% | 4.3% |
| Northumberland | 3 | 12.1% | 4.5% |
| Worcestershire | 3 | 11.6% | 5.3% |
| Derbyshire | 3 | 11.5% | 4.7% |
| Monmouthshire | 3 | 7.8% | 7.0% |
| Northamptonshire | 2 | 12.3% | 3.5% |
| Wrexham | 2 | 9.4% | 4.1% |
| Newport | 2 | 8.6% | 4.0% |
| Isle of Wight | 2 | 6.2% | 5.0% |
| Test Valley | 1 | 60.0% | 100.0% |
| Nottinghamshire | 1 | 7.8% | 1.5% |
| Lincolnshire | 1 | 5.4% | 1.4% |
| Denbighshire | 1 | 4.1% | 2.4% |
| Isle of Anglesey | 1 | 3.2% | 3.3% |
| Bridgend | 1 | 3.0% | 1.9% |
| Neath Port Talbot | 1 | 2.9% | 1.7% |
| Pembrokeshire | 1 | 2.6% | 2.1% |
| Gwynedd | 1 | 2.1% | 1.9% |
| Rhondda Cynon Taf | 1 | 1.3% | 1.3% |
| Dacorum | 0 | 39.3% | 0.0% |
| Chelmsford | 0 | 36.5% | 0.0% |
| Mendip | 0 | 36.0% | 0.0% |
| Camden | 0 | 20.1% | 0.0% |
| Malvern Hills | 0 | 18.8% | 0.0% |
| Sedgemoor | 0 | 18.0% | 0.0% |
| Windsor and Maidenhead | 0 | 17.9% | 0.0% |
| Mid Suffolk | 0 | 13.4% | 0.0% |
| Rushcliffe | 0 | 13.1% | 0.0% |
| Central Bedfordshire | 0 | 13.1% | 0.0% |
| Nottingham | 0 | 8.1% | 0.0% |
| Staffordshire | 0 | 4.6% | 0.0% |
| Merthyr Tydfil | 0 | 1.6% | 0.0% |
| Vale of Glamorgan | 0 | 1.1% | 0.0% |
| Carmarthenshire | 0 | 1.0% | 0.0% |
| Caerphilly | 0 | 0.7% | 0.0% |
No change (8)
- North Dorset 0 seats (unchanged from 2016)
- Havant 0 seats (unchanged from 2016)
- Runnymede 0 seats (unchanged from 2016)
- Rushmoor 0 seats (unchanged from 2016)
- Spelthorne 0 seats (unchanged from 2016)
- Crawley 0 seats (unchanged from 2016)
- Slough 0 seats (unchanged from 2016)
- Doncaster 0 seats (unchanged from 2016)
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.