The politics of Scotland operate within the constitution of the United Kingdom, of which Scotland is a country. Scotland is a democracy, being represented in both the Scottish Parliament and the Parliament of the United Kingdom since the Scotland Act 1998. Most executive power is exercised by the Scottish Government, led by the First Minister of Scotland, the head of government in a multi-party system. The judiciary of Scotland, dealing with Scots law, is independent of the legislature and the Scottish Government. Scots law is primarily determined by the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Government shares some executive powers with the Scotland Office, a British government department led by the Secretary of State for Scotland.
The Metropolitan Borough of Wirral is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, in North West England. It has a population of 322,453 (2022), and encompasses 62 square miles (161 km2) of the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula. Major settlements include Birkenhead, Wallasey, Bebington, Heswall, Hoylake and West Kirby. Wirral is England's westernmost metropolitan borough, faced by the city of Liverpool to the northeast over the River Mersey.
Sir Roger James Gale is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Herne Bay and Sandwich, formerly North Thanet, since 1983. He had a career in journalism and broadcasting from 1964, around the same time as he joined the Conservative Party, until 1983. He was a prominent and vocal critic of Boris Johnson during his leadership of the Conservative Party.
Thanet is a local government district in Kent, England. The council is based in Margate and the district also contains the towns of Broadstairs, Ramsgate and Westgate-on-Sea, along with several villages. It takes its name from the Isle of Thanet, a former island which gradually became connected to the mainland between the 12th and 16th centuries.
In the context of local authorities in the United Kingdom, no overall control is a situation in which no single political group achieves a majority of seats, comparably to a hung parliament. Of the 248 councils who had members up for election in the 2019 local elections, 73 resulted in a NOC administration. In the 2021 local elections, 14 resulted in no overall control. Outside of the UK, the term may be applied to other local authorities, such as the local councils of Malta and the General Assembly of Budapest in Hungary.
Laura Jane Sandys is a former chair of the European Movement UK, and a British Conservative Party politician, who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Thanet between 2010 and 2015.
Craig Mackinlay is a Conservative Party politician and businessman. From 2015 to 2024, he was the last Member of Parliament (MP) for South Thanet.
Thanet District Council elections are held every four years to elect Thanet District Council in Kent, England. Since the last boundary changes in 2003 the council has comprised 56 councillors representing 23 wards.
The 2010 Leeds City Council election took place on Thursday 6 May 2010 to elect members of Leeds City Council in England. It was held on the same day as the 2010 general election and other local elections across the UK.
The Kent County Council election, 2013 was an election to all 84 seats on Kent County Council held on Thursday 2 May as part of the 2013 United Kingdom local elections. 84 councillors were elected from 72 electoral divisions, which returned either one or two county councillors each by first-past-the-post voting for a four-year term of office. The electoral divisions were the same as those used at the previous election in 2009. No elections were held in Medway, which is a unitary authority outside the area covered by the County Council. The election saw the Conservative Party narrowly retain overall control of the council.
The 2017 Scottish local elections were held on Thursday 4 May, in all 32 local authorities. The SNP retained its position as the largest party in terms of votes and councillors, despite suffering minor losses. The Conservatives made gains and displaced Labour as the second largest party, while the Liberal Democrats suffered a net loss of councillors despite increasing their share of the vote. Minor parties and independents polled well; and independent councillors retained majority control over the three island councils. For the first time since the local government reforms in 1995, all mainland councils fell under no overall control.
The 2015 United Kingdom local elections were held on Thursday 7 May 2015, the same day as the general election for the House of Commons.
The 2015 Ashfield District Council election took place on 7 May 2015, to elect members of Ashfield District Council in England. This was on the same day as other local elections.
Elections to elect all members (councillors) of Thanet District Council were held on 7 May 2015, as part of the 2015 United Kingdom local elections taking place simultaneously with the 2015 General Election. Local UK Independence Party candidates won the council, becoming the governing group, the first time UKIP had won control of any type of local government unit above the level of a civil parish council, whether London Borough, Metropolitan Borough, Unitary Authority, Non-Metropolitan Borough or a District Council. The District has as its main towns the beach resort towns of Ramsgate, Margate and Broadstairs.
The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 12 December 2019, with 47,567,752 registered voters entitled to vote to elect 650 Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons. The governing Conservative Party led by the prime minister, Boris Johnson, won a landslide victory with a majority of 80 seats, a net gain of 48, on 43.6 per cent of the popular vote, the highest percentage for any party since the 1979 general election, though with a narrower popular vote margin than that achieved by the Labour Party over the Conservatives at the 1997 general election. This was the second national election to be held in 2019 in the United Kingdom, the first being the 2019 European Parliament election.
Elections to elect all members (councillors) of Thanet District Council were held on 5 May 2011, as part of the 2011 United Kingdom local elections taking place simultaneously with the Alternative Vote Referendum. No political party won an overall majority of seats, meaning that the council went into 'No Overall Control' status for the first time since 1991. The Conservative Party ran a minority administration until December of that year, when a Conservative councillor defected to the Independents group, enabling The Labour Party to run a minority administration until 2015. The District has as its main towns the beach resort towns of Ramsgate, Margate and Broadstairs.
Piers Andrew Charles Wauchope is a British barrister and politician who served as interim leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) between June and August 2019.
The Alliance for Local Living (ALL) was a minor localist party and political group based in Dorset, with separate branches in the two authorities, ALL for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and ALL for Dorset. The BCP office was based in Poole, whilst the Dorset office was based in Weymouth. The party was deregistered in November 2023, at which point it had four councillors on Dorset Council, who continued to sit together as an informal grouping. The group became Independents for Dorset in 2024.
The Christchurch Independents (CI) are a political party and group in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council, formed by journalist Andy Martin and (former) Conservative and Independent Councillors after the reorganisation of local government in Dorset, with new candidates joining to stand in Christchurch wards for the inaugural 2019 Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council Election. Originally not forming a registered political party, CI was initially the joint-third largest alongside the Poole People and ALL group. In 2020, Christchurch Independents councillor Colin Bungey died, leading to a by-election being held the next year in the Commons Ward, for which the Christchurch Independents were registered as a political party.
The 2022 Vale of Glamorgan Council election took place as of 5 May 2022 to elect 54 members across 24 wards to Vale of Glamorgan Council. On the same day, elections were held to the other 21 local authorities and to community councils in Wales as part of the 2022 Welsh local elections. The previous Vale of Glamorgan all-council election took place in May 2017 and future elections will take place every five years.
