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United Kingdom local elections, 2007

United Kingdom local elections, 2007
United Kingdom
← 2006 3 May 2007 2008 →

312 English district councils and all Scottish councils
  First party Second party Third party
  David Cameron TonyBlairofficial (cropped).jpg Sir Ming Campbell MP 2008 cropped.jpg
Leader David Cameron Tony Blair Menzies Campbell
Party Conservative Labour Liberal Democrat
Leader since 6 December 2005 21 July 1994 2 March 2006
Last election 39% 26% 25%
Percentage 40% 27% 26%
Councils 165 34 23
Councils +/- Increase+39 Decrease-8 Decrease-4
Councillors 5315 1877 2171
Councillors +/- Increase+911 Decrease−504 Decrease-246

United Kingdom local elections, 2007.svg
Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results.

The 2007 UK local government elections were held on 3 May 2007. These elections took place in most of England and all of Scotland. There were no local government elections in Wales though the Welsh Assembly had a general election on the same day. There were no local government elections in Northern Ireland. Just over half of English councils and almost all the Scottish councils began the counts on Friday, rather than Thursday night, because of more complex arrangements regarding postal votes.

These elections were a landmark in the United Kingdom as it was the first time that 18- to 20-year-olds could stand as candidates for council seats. The change was due to an alteration of the Electoral Administration Act. At least fourteen 18- to 20-year-olds are known to have stood as candidates for council seats and as a result William Lloyd became the youngest person to be elected to official office in Britain. There were also a number of councils which used new voting methods such as internet and telephone voting in addition to the traditional methods of polling stations and postal votes.

These were the final elections to be overseen by Labour leader and prime minister Tony Blair, who resigned the following month after a decade as prime minister to be succeeded by chancellor Gordon Brown. His party only finished in second place with a narrow lead over the third-placed Liberal Democrats, whose leader Menzies Campbell would also resign later in the year, while it was a strong showing for the Conservatives under David Cameron. The results confirmed that the Conservatives were well on their way to winning the next general election, making a very substantial 911 gains, the largest gains made by the party in over 20 years, although there was still the challenge of winning parliamentary by-elections and ultimately winning enough seats in the next general election to be considered.


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