Does your council vote?
What we’ll publish
Since late 2024 we’ve recorded 19 council by-elections where the right-of-centre parties together beat the winner and still lost. May 2027 is the same problem on a far bigger scale, so we’re starting early.
- Over the winter: which councils the split could cost the right, using the latest local results and our seat projections.
- Mayors: who to back in each mayoral race, once the candidates are known.
- In April, once candidates are confirmed: ward-by-ward recommendations where the evidence is clear. Where it’s too close to call, we’ll say so rather than guess.
Mayoral elections
New regional mayors: Cheshire and Warrington, and Cumbria, are due to elect their first mayors.
Council mayors: Bedford, Leicester, Mansfield and Middlesbrough.
All 269 councils
Councils marked “a third” elect about a third of their councillors. The rest elect all of them.
Compiled in November 2026 from Open Council Data UK, Keith Edkins’s election trailer and Wikipedia. These are the elections scheduled at that date, and plans can change: local government reorganisation has moved several councils in and out of this list, and some wards have new boundaries. Check with your council. Northern Ireland also votes, but we don’t cover it.