2014 London local elections

There were local government elections in London on Thursday 22 May 2014. All councillor seats on the 32 London borough councils were up for election. The electorates of Hackney, Lewisham, Newham and Tower Hamlets also elected their executive mayors, who operate in place of council leaders in those boroughs. Ward changes took place in Hackney, Kensington and Chelsea, and Tower Hamlets, which reduced the total number of councillors by 10 to 1,851. Both the mayoral and councillor elections are four-yearly.

Quick facts All 1,851 councillors on all 32 London boroughs, Turnout ...

2014 London local elections

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All 1,851 councillors on all 32 London boroughs
Turnout	38.9% (23.1%)
First party Second party   Leader Ed Miliband David Cameron Party Labour Conservative Popular vote 944,967 663,847 Percentage 37.6% 26.4% Swing 5.1% 5.3% Councils 20 9 Gain/loss 3 2 Councillors 1,060 612 Gain/loss 185 105   Third party Fourth party   Leader Nick Clegg Natalie Bennett Party Liberal Democrats Green Popular vote 267,769 246,805 Percentage 10.6% 9.8% Swing 11.8% 3.2% Councils 1 0 Gain/loss 1 Councillors 116 4 Gain/loss 130 2
London borough councils by political control following election. Councils that are Labour are in red, Conservative in blue, Liberal Democrat in yellow and two in no overall control party-politically are in black.

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The results saw London Labour achieve their best result in over 40 years, winning 1,060 councillors, control of 20 out of 32 councils and 38% of the popular vote (their highest since 1998). Only the elections of 1964, 1971 and 1974 have seen Labour win more than 1,060 council seats in London, and Labour has not controlled 20 councils or more since 1971. This result was subsequently surpassed by the party's performance in the 2018 elections.

The London Conservatives dropped to their lowest-ever percentage of the vote in a London local election, at just 26.4%, and fell to their lowest councillor total since 1998. The London Liberal Democrats' vote halved, with the party dropping to 11% of the popular vote and 116 seats (down 130), the worst result for the Lib Dems or the Liberals since 1978.

The election saw a record vote for parties outside the 3 major parties, with UKIP, the London Green Party, independents and other minor parties winning a collective 25.4% of the vote, the highest since the creation of the London Boroughs in 1964. 63 minor party or independent councillors were elected in total.

UKIP and the Greens saw their best-ever results in terms of vote share (9.8% for the Greens and 9.5% for UKIP), but whilst UKIP gained 12 seats, the Greens gained just 2.

Following the elections, two of the thirty two London borough councils were in no overall control, a decrease of one. All four mayoral elections returned the incumbent mayors: 3 Labour and 1 Tower Hamlets First.