Local Elections 2024: Results across East of England as Tories suffer huge losses in Anglia region
The results of the local elections for each council in the ITV Anglia region will be updated below as they come in
The Conservatives have seen heavy losses across the Anglia region in the local council elections, the last big test of political opinion before the general election expected later this year.
Their tally of councillors were halved in the seats the Tories were defending and they lost three of their police and crime commissioners in the region - Bedfordshire, Norfolk and Northamptonshire all going to Labour.
In the region's first council result Labour gained control of Thurrock Council in Essex by making eight gains. They now have a overall majority for the first time in a decade. The party are also enjoying an overall majority in Milton Keynes for the first time since 2000.
While the Conservatives lost dozens of councillors across the region and their overall majority on Basildon Council they managed to retain a key Labour target in Harlow by a single seat.
In the ITV News Anglia region, there were elections for 486 council seats across 18 local authorities. The Conservatives were defending 200 of those seats with Labour holding a little more than 100.
ELECTION HEADLINES IN THE ITV ANGLIA REGION
Labour win a working majority in Milton Keynes for the first time in almost a quarter of a century and also win in Thurrock for the first time in a decade
The Conservatives remain in charge in Harlow despite losing four seats but they lost their majority on nearby Basildon Council. The Conservatives also retained Epping Forest
Colchester, Southend, Peterborough, Norwich, Brentwood and Rochford remain hung councils with no party in overall control
The Conservatives lost 10 seats in Welwyn Hatfield and eight seats in North Hertfordshire where both council remains hung and the party has been wiped out completely in Castle Point where two Independent groups have all the seats
Labour strengthened their grip in Ipswich and Stevenage with an increased overall majority. They also retained Cambridge.
The Liberal Democrats remain in charge in St Albans with an overall majority of 38 over all the other parties
The interactive map below shows the results in each council area in ITV Anglia region that had an election in May 2024. Click here if the map is not viewable on your device
There was also voting for nine police and crime commissioner elections in each police force area in the region. The Conservatives held all nine posts in the Anglia region before the 2024 election.
The one overnight result was in Lincolnshire where the Conservative Marc Jones remains the Police and Crime Commissioner.
BASILDON
Labour made big gains in Basildon - up by nine seats but the Conservative were down by 13. It meant the Tories lost their overall majority and Labour are now the biggest party. There are also four more Independent councillors.
The Conservatives had had a working majority in Basildon since 2021 and had a majority of eight seats in 2023. The last time Labour had an overall majority on the council was between 1996 and 2000.
In the May 2023 local elections the Conservatives won a 39% share of the vote compared to a 29% share for Labour.
There have been boundary changes in Basildon meaning the whole council was being elected instead of the usual third. There will be 42 councillors elected - the same as now.
BRENTWOOD
Brentwood remains a hung council despite the Conservative and Labour each picking up an extra seat created in boundary changes.
Gains by the Liberal Democrats in the 2023 local elections deprived the Conservatives of the overall majority they won back in 2015 on Brentwood Council in Essex.
The Lib Dems last ran the council with a majority in 2003.
There have been boundary changes in Brentwood meaning the whole council was elected instead of the usual third. There were 39 councillors elected - two more than before.
CAMBRIDGE
Labour has been in power on Cambridge City Council since 2014 and maintained their overall majority of eight seats in the 2024 election.
The Greens made a single gain at the expense of the Liberal Democrats comfortably taking the seat of the leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, Lucy Nethsingha.
The Liberal Democrats last had an outright majority in Cambridge in 2012. The Conservatives have a single councillor and last had a majority in the university city in 1979.
14 of the 42 councils seats were up for election in May 2024
CASTLE POINT
Independent councillors now completely rule the roost on Castle Point Council after they ousted all the remaining Conservative councillors. There are 24 councillors from the People's Independent Party and 15 councillors from the Canvey Island Independent Party.
The Conservatives lost their overall majority in 2021 after nearly two decades in power. Labour were left with no councillors in Castle Point but had enough between 1995 and 2003 to secure more than half the seats.
There have been boundary changes in Castle Point meaning the whole council was elected instead of the usual third. There are now 39 councillors - two fewer than before the 2024 election.
COLCHESTER
Colchester remains a hung council with the Green Party making a single seat gain while the Liberal Democrat fell back by one seat.
One of England’s newest cities, Colchester is usually split three ways between the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats. No party has won a majority in annual elections in Colchester since 1996.
The Conservatives remain the largest single party but ahead of the elections the Liberal Democrats were running a minority administration with support from Labour and the Greens.
18 of the 51 council seats were up for election in May 2024.
EPPING FOREST
The Conservatives retained control of Epping Forest but with a much reduced overall majority of just three seats.
Epping Forest District Council has been run by the Conservatives since 2007 and no other party has had an overall majority there since the council was formed in 1973.
At last year’s local elections when one-third of the seats were being contested, the Tories took a 48% share of the votes although that did represent a decline in share compared to 2019.
There have been boundary changes in Epping Forest meaning the whole council was elected instead of the usual third. There were 54 councillors elected - four fewer than previously.
HARLOW
Harlow's Conservative majority has been knocked back to the narrowest margin of just one seat as Labour made four gains from the Tories. Harlow had been a key Labour target as the party leader Sir Keir Starmer paid a visit to the Essex town a day before polling stations opened.
Harlow used to be a solid Labour council until the turn of the century and since then it has flipped between Conservative and Labour. The Tories snatched control from Labour in 2021 and were operating with a majority of nine.
There are all-out elections in Harlow this year because all the ward boundaries have been adjusted to allow for population changes. It means three councillors are being elected in each of the 11 wards.
The boundary changes mean there will still be a total of 33 councillors in Harlow - the same as now.
Conservative leader Dan Swords hails 'incredible' win despite national Tory slump
IPSWICH
Ipswich Borough Council has been Labour for most of its history and the party has enjoyed an overall majority since 2011. They increased that majority significantly in 2024 up from 17 to 28.
Labour gained five councillors at the expense of Conservatives and Independents.
The Conservatives had an overall majority in Ipswich briefly from 1976-79.
18 of the 48 council seats were up for election in May 2024.
MILTON KEYNES
Labour has won overall control of Milton Keynes for the first time since they last had a majority in 2000. The party gaining three seats.
Labour now has 30 seats on the Buckinghamshire unitary authority, with Lib Dems on 18, after gaining two, and Conservatives on nine, after losing five.
Labour was previously running the council in alliance with the Lib Dems, in a city with two marginal parliamentary constituencies.
It is one of the newest cities in the country and has been run in turn by Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats. It is currently a joint Lab / Lib Dem administration but prior to the elections Labour were within two seats of gaining an overall majority.
Labour last had an overall majority in Milton Keynes between 1996 and 2000.
At the next General Election, Milton Keynes will have three MPs instead of two and all three of the seats are Labour targets that the party must win to stand a chance of forming the next government.
19 of the 57 council seats were for election in May 2024.
NORTH HERTFORDSHIRE
Labour have moved within one seat of securing an overall majority in North Hertfordshire after making six gains. The Conservatives lost eight seats.
The Conservatives lost their overall majority in North Hertfordshire in 2019 and since then the council has been hung.
In the May 2023 local elections, the Liberal Democrats took more votes overall than either Labour or the Conservatives.
There were boundary changes in North Herts meaning the whole council was elected instead of the usual third. There were 51 councillors elected - two more than now. In the future, North Hertfordshire will elect all its councillors once every four years.
NORWICH
Norwich City Council remains hung with Labour one seat short of an overall majority. The Greens made two gains from Independent councillors.
Norwich City Council has traditionally been Labour and the party held office from 1973 until 2002 when they lost control to the Liberal Democrats.
In recent years it has been a straight-forward two horse race between Labour and the Greens in most city wards and Labour has enjoyed an overall majority for most of the time.
After an internal re-selection dispute in 2023 several Labour councillors left the party and sat as Independents instead. That means Labour didn't have an outright majority prior to the elections but was still running the council.
13 of the 39 council seats were up for election in May 2024.
PETERBOROUGH
The Conservatives lost 11 of their council seats in Peterborough and have moved from being the biggest party on the hung council to the third-largest behind Labour and the Independent Peterborough First group.
Among the gains for Labour was the seat won by Daisy Blakemore-Creedon, who became Labour's youngest councillor - and possibly the youngest in the UK - with her election at the age of 18.
Peterborough is a unitary council where all the parties struggle to maintain an overall majority for any length of time so quite often informal pacts and arrangements are made between different groups.
The Conservatives were running a minority administration until November 2023 when they lost a vote of no confidence. The council then was run by a group called Peterborough First led by a former Tory councillor even though they had only 10 of the 60 council seats.
At the General Election, Peterborough is the Labour party’s top target in the ITV News Anglia region needing a 2.5% swing to win although the parliamentary constituency is much smaller than the council area.
23 of the 60 council seats were up for election in May 2024.
ROCHFORD
The situation on Rochford Council remains the same with no one party in overall control. The Liberal Democrats gained three seats while the Conservatives fell from 14 to 10 councillors.
Prior to the elections, Rochford in Essex had been hung since 2022 when the Conservative lost power. It was being run by a joint Independent, Liberal Democrat and Green administration.
13 of the 39 council seats were up for election in May 2024.
ST ALBANS
St Albans remains in the hands of the Liberal Democrats, despite the party losing one seat.
Labour gained its only two seats, while the Conservatives lost a seat.
In 2022, the Liberal Democrats stormed to victory with a whopping majority of 44 on the City and District Council. The year before, they had secured a majority of only two seats. In the 2024 election the Lib Dem majority was 38 as the party lost one seat along with the Conservatives.
Labour made a couple of gains for their first councillors in the city since 2021.
It is a council that has flipped between Tory control and Lib Dem control over its history along with periods when no party had an overall majority.
St Albans is also the only parliamentary seat in the ITV News Anglia region that currently has a Liberal Democrat MP.
21 of the 56 council seats were up for election in May 2024.
SOUTHEND
Labour have become the biggest party on the hung council in Southend by making four gains while the Conservatives lost four councillors.
Prior to the elections, the Conservatives were the biggest party on a hung unitary authority in Southend-on-Sea, which was only recently made a city. The Tories needed four net gains to win back the overall majority they lost in 2019.
Labour have been challenging strongly in the seaside city making two gains in last year’s local election. However the Conservative still took the biggest share in 2023 with 33% of the votes compared to Labour on 29%, the Lib Dems on 13% and the Greens on 9%.
Southend has an independent party called Confelicity which has contested all the wards in the city in the past few years. In 2023 they gained 3% of the votes and their share was 3.3% in 2024.
17 of the 51 council seats were up for election in May 2024.
STEVENAGE
Labour increased their majority of Stevenage by gaining eight seats, while the Conservatives lost eight - leaving them with just one seat and no longer making them the opposition party.
With six seats, the Liberal Democrats have replaced the Conservatives as opposition.
Stevenage is the only council in the ITV News Anglia region on which one party has had an overall majority throughout its entire history since local government re-organisation in 1973/4.
Labour has been in control for half a century although they came close to losing their majority in 2021 when the Conservatives took a higher share of votes.
There have been boundary changes in Stevenage meaning the whole council was elected instead of the usual third. There were 39 councillors elected - the same as before.
THURROCK
Labour gained control of Thurrock for the first time since 2014 by gaining eight council seats. The Conservatives lost 10 seats, retaining only one of the 11 seats they were defending at this election. Independents also made two gains.
Prior to the election, Thurrock was a hung council, although the Conservatives had a slender overall majority from 2021.
The council was left in no overall control in February after two Tories voted against the council’s budget plans which included an 8% rise in council tax and £20m of savings for the virtually bankrupt council.
This was the last one-third election before all-out elections begin in Thurrock in 2025.
17 of the 49 council seats were up for election in May 2024.
WELWYN HATFIELD
The Conservatives lost their overall majority in Welwyn Hatfield in May 2023 with a joint Labour and Liberal Democrat administration running the council prior to the 2024 elections.
In the 2024 election, the Conservatives lost a further ten councillors with Labour gaining eight and the Liberal Democrats winning a couple more. Labour are now the largest group but are five seats short of an outright majority.
The council used to flip-flop regularly between Tory and Labour control from the 1970s until the early 2000s but was in Conservative control from 2002 until 2019.
The Conservatives were still the biggest single party and took 34% of the votes in the May 2023 local elections. Labour won 31% of the votes and the Lib Dems 26%. The Greens were on 9%.
Welwyn Hatfield is the constituency of the Defence Secretary Grant Shapps.
16 of the 48 council seats were up for election in May 2024.
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