2024 Plymouth City Council election
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19 of the 57 seats to Plymouth City Council 29 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Map showing the results of contested wards in the 2024 Plymouth City Council elections. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2024 Plymouth City Council election took place on 2 May 2024 to elect members of Plymouth City Council in Devon, England. It was held alongside other local elections across the United Kingdom.
Labour gained seats at the expense of the Conservatives, increasing Labour's overall majority on the council.[1]
History
The council elects its councillors in thirds, with a third of seats being up for election every year for three years, with no election each fourth year to correspond with councillors' four-year terms.[2][3] Councillors defending their seats in this election were previously elected in 2021, which had been delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In that election, fourteen Conservative candidates and five Labour candidates were elected.
Elections in Plymouth are usually competitive between the Labour Party and the Conservative Party.[4] The council was controlled by the Labour Party from the 2018 council election until the 2021 council election, when the council entered no overall control, with no party holding a majority of seats. Several Conservative councillors were suspended or resigned from their party, and the Conservative council leader Nick Kelly was replaced by Richard Bingley after Kelly lost a confidence vote in February 2022. Some former Conservative councillors rejoined their former group after the 2022 council election, giving the party an overall majority on 17 May 2022.[5] Kelly resigned from the Conservative group on 15 October 2022 after being suspended, returning the council to no overall control. Several other councillors resigned from the Conservative group with some forming a group called the Independent Alliance, led by Kelly and also including the former Labour councillor Chaz Singh.
The Conservative council leader Richard Bingley signed an executive decision to approve the felling of 110 mature trees in Plymouth City Centre in March 2023, as part of longstanding plans to regenerate the city centre. The decision was legally challenged and criticised. He resigned as council leader the following week.[6]
Labour won fifteen seats in the subsequent 2023 council election, winning overall control of the council. The Conservatives won only one seat, while independent candidates who had been members of the Independent Alliance group won in Plympton and the former Conservative councillor Steve Ricketts was elected as an independent candidate in Drake ward.[7]
Developments since 2023
Defections and suspensions
The Conservative councillor Philip Partridge left the Conservative group to form a new "Free Independents" group led by Ricketts. The independent Plympton councillors formed an "Independent Group". Andrea Loveridge left the Conservative group in December 2023 to sit as an independent councillor.[8]
Efford and Lipson by-election
The Labour councillor Brian Vincent died in April 2023, having first being elected in 1997 and having served continuously as a councillor since 2006.
The Labour candidate Paul McNamara won the ensuing by-election on 15 June.[9]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Paul McNamara | 1,204 | 58.8 |  6.7 | |
| Conservative | Will Jones | 423 | 20.6 |  15.6 | |
| Green | Pat Bushell | 196 | 9.6 | 2.3 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Alexander Primmer | 80 | 3.9 | 0.8 | |
| Independent | Chaz Singh | 69 | 3.4 | N/A | |
| Heritage | Darryl Ingram | 54 | 2.6 | N/A | |
| TUSC | Neil Prentice | 23 | 1.1 | 0.3 | |
| Turnout | 2,049 | 20.2 | 12.5 | ||
| Labour hold | Swing | 11.2 | |||
July 2023 by-elections
In June 2023, the Conservative councillor and former council leader Vivien Pengelly died and the Labour councillor Sue McDonald resigned due to family health reasons. Both ensuing by-elections took place on 27 July 2023. The Labour candidate Stefan Kirzanac won Pengelly's Plymstock Dunstone seat and the former MP Alison Raynsford retained McDonald's St Peter and the Waterfront seat for the Labour Party.[10]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Stefan Krizanac | 1,072 | 33.2 | 6.5 | |
| Conservative | Julie Hunt | 919 | 28.4 | 20.7 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Peter Edwards | 596 | 18.4 | 12.4 | |
| Independent | Grace Stickland | 480 | 14.9 | N/A | |
| Green | Bruce Robinson | 97 | 3.0 | 1.9 | |
| Heritage | Darryl Ingram | 55 | 1.7 | N/A | |
| TUSC | Jackie Hilton | 12 | 0.4 | N/A | |
| Turnout | 3,231 | 32.0 | 6.6 | ||
| Labour gain from Conservative | Swing | 7.1 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Alison Raynsford | 1,126 | 48.0 | 8.1 | |
| Conservative | Ian Fleming | 488 | 20.8 | 9.0 | |
| Green | Shayna Newham-Joynes | 206 | 8.8 | N/A | |
| Liberal Democrats | Hugh Janes | 175 | 7.5 | 1.5 | |
| Reform UK | Andy Gibbons | 174 | 7.4 | N/A | |
| Independent candidate | Chaz Singh | 126 | 5.4 | N/A | |
| TUSC | Ryan Aldred | 52 | 2.2 | 0.8 | |
| Turnout | 2,347 | 18.6 | 9.9 | ||
| Labour hold | Swing | 0.5 |
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