2003 United Kingdom local elections

Local elections took place in various parts of the United Kingdom on 1 May 2003, the same day as the Scottish Parliamentary and the Welsh Assembly elections. There were local elections for all councils in Scotland and in most of England. There were no elections in Wales, Northern Ireland or London.

2003 United Kingdom local elections

1 May 2003
All 36 metropolitan boroughs, 40 out of 46 unitary authorities, 232 out of 238 English districts and all 32 Scottish council areas
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Iain Duncan Smith Tony Blair Charles Kennedy Party Conservative Labour Liberal Democrats Leader since 13 September 2001 21 July 1994 9 August 1999 Percentage 35%[lower-alpha 1] 30% 30%[1] Swing 1% 3% 3% Councils 110 66 28 Councils +/- 31 28 5 Councillors 4,423 3,001 2,624 Councillors +/- 566 833 193

The ruling Labour Party lost a considerable 833 seats, while both the main opposition parties, Conservative and Liberal Democrat, polled strongly, with the Conservatives enjoying the largest share of the vote. Labour had now been in government for six years and still had a triple-digit majority, and over the summer of 2003 some opinion polls showed the Tories level with Labour. However, these were to be the last of the two local council elections contested by the Tories under the leadership of Iain Duncan Smith, who was ousted as leader later in the year and succeeded by Michael Howard due to his unpopularity as leader and doubts about his ability to win a general election.

Fifty-nine councils held electoral pilot schemes to try to boost turnout figures. Schemes included all postal voting, mobile polling stations, alterations to voting hours and various kinds of Electronic voting. The most successful in raising turnout was all-postal voting which saw turnout rise to an average of 50%. In comparison, turnout across the whole of England was only 33%.