2023 South Derbyshire District Council election

Prior to the election the council was under no overall control; Labour and the Conservatives each had 16 seats each on the council, and there were also four independent councillors. At the 2019 election the Conservatives had taken a majority of the seats, but subsequent defections had led to them losing their majority. Since January 2021 the council had been led by a Labour minority administration, with the leader of the council being Kevin Richards. He chose not to stand for re-election.^[1]

Labour won a majority of the seats on the council at the election. The result in Hilton ward was declared void after Conservative candidate Gillian Lemmon died during the election count. The three seats for that ward were therefore left vacant pending a by-election.^[2] The Hilton election was subsequently held on 15 June 2023 and saw the Liberal Democrats gain two of the three seats there, giving them their first representation on the council. Conservative group leader Peter Smith was one of the candidates defeated in Hilton ward.^[3]

Robert Pearson was appointed the new leader of the council at the annual council meeting on 18 May 2023.^[4]

Following the results, Labour took the council from no overall control.^[5]

2023 South Derbyshire District Council election[6]
Party		Candidates	Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Labour	35	23	9	0	9	63.9	48.5	24,986	+9.7
	Conservative	36	10	0	12	12	27.8	43.7	22,487	–9.7
	Liberal Democrats	5	2	2	0	2	5.6	4.5	2,294	N/A
	Independent	2	1	1	0	1	2.8	2.7	1,401	N/A
	Green	1	0	0	0		0.0	0.6	302	N/A