City of Winchester

The City of Winchester is made up of two parliamentary constituencies. Winchester constituency covers the north-eastern part of the city, as well as Chandler's Ford, which is part of Eastleigh. The remainder constitutes Meon Valley, which also covers part of East Hampshire and Havant. Winchester constituency has been represented by Steve Brine since 2010, whilst Meon Valley has been represented by Flick Drummond since the 2019 general election.

Elections to the council are held in three out of every four years, with one third of the seats on the council being elected at each election. From 1995 to the 2004 election the Liberal Democrats had a majority on the council, but after 2 years when no party held a majority the 2006 election saw the Conservative party gain control.[2] The elections on 6 May 2010 saw the Liberal Democrats re take control of the council, however the council soon switched to NOC a year later in 2011. In 2012, the Conservative Party made their only Council gain of the entire English local elections and won a majority in Winchester once again.[3] Subsequently, two Conservative councillors defected to the Liberal Democrat group, placing the council under No Overall Control.[4] Following local elections on 7 May 2015, the Conservatives re-gained majority control of the council.[5] Since the 2016 council election, in which new boundaries were introduced, no other parties than the Conservative and Liberal Democrats have held seats on the council. After the local elections on 2 May 2019, the Liberal Democrats gained majority control. Three independent councillors were elected as Conservatives. Cllr Weston resigned from the party in late 2019.[6] Cllr Clementson was suspended from the party pending an investigation.[7] In November 2020 Alresford & Itchen Valley councillor Lisa Griffiths resigned from the Conservative Party to sit as an independent.[8] In September 2020, Liberal Democrat Councillor Kim Gottlieb (who joined the party after leaving the Conservatives) resigned as a Councillor, leaving one of the three St Michael seats vacant.

The council is currently led by a Liberal Democrat administration. The make up of the council as of November 2020 is:[6]

• Liberal Democrats - 27
• Conservative Party - 16
• Independent - 3
• Vacant - 1

Hampshire County Council holds elections every four years. Several Councillors are members of both the City and County Councils. In the 2017 elections the Winchester City district area elected seven representatives, out of 78: