Local Elections 2026

What do the results mean for Northern Mayors?

It’s been a big week in politics.

In all the focus on national gains/losses and who is up/down nationally, what is often missed is the very real difference this will mean in places.

In particular, there is little discussion on what this will mean for mayors given that the membership of their combined authorities is formed of the leaders of the different councils. For example, mayors must get the approval of their combined authorities for many policy or funding changes.

So in this post I’m just going to focus on the implications for the combined authorities (CAs) and mayors of the North, in particular the big urban areas which are mostly covered by the new ‘Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities’. These EMSAs are the ones who now have integrated funding settlements - and all currently have Labour mayors in office from May 2024 to May 2028 in Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, the North East, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire.

Photo by Boris YUE on Unsplash

So where do the elections of May 2026 leave the North’s major political institutions? I’ll run through each of the five areas to analyse the results and think about the future - in order from biggest change to smallest change. I’ve shown how the composition of the CAs might change - but have not included the position of mayors or other members outside the core LAs so the actual control of CAs will differ. Where councils are ‘No Overall Control’ (NOC), I’ve categorised them by largest party - but this is no guarantee about who will lead the council.

At the end I’ll think about the implications of these results, given that a more fragmented political landscape will challenge previous ways of working.

West Yorkshire

The biggest changes have been in West Yorkshire and the North East.

All five of West Yorkshire’s LAs held elections, with four of these being ‘all outs’ due to boundary changes. An ‘all out’ election can lead to a very big change in the composition of the council compared to the more usual cycle where elections take place in ‘thirds’.

And as such, the results have seen a dramatic change in the likely leadership of the LAs and therefore in the composition of the Combined Authority led by Tracy Brabin.

Each WY council was led by Labour, with Kirklees being the only one under NOC (yet still had a Labour leader).

All of four of the councils holding all outs have moved to Reform control or Reform being the largest party - with only Leeds likely to have a Labour leader (this moved to NOC but Labour still has 48 out of 99 councillors).

So control of the Combined Authority will be more fragmented in West Yorkshire. However, the composition of the CA here differs to other areas due to the three ‘political balance’ members which will likely make a difference to the final composition of the CA.¹

North East

The five metropolitan local authorities of the old ‘Tyne & Wear’ area held elections last week. Most were Labour controlled, except Newcastle and South Tyneside which were in NOC with a Labour leadership.

Gateshead, Newcastle, South Tyneside and Sunderland had all outs, whereas North Tyneside elected in thirds.

As in West Yorkshire, there has been a big shift of control to Reform, with the party gaining majority control of Gateshead, South Tyneside and Sunderland. North Tyneside has remained Labour controlled, but if the results of the election by thirds were to be repeated over the next two years then Reform would have a chance to control the council.

Newcastle has seen a fragmentation of the Labour coalition towards the Greens, Lib Dems and Reform - each of whom have 24 or 25 Councillors. Labour was reduced from 46 to 2.

This leaves control of the combined authority more fragmented as seen in West Yorkshire too.

Greater Manchester

The ten boroughs of Greater Manchester also held local elections, with all of these contests electing one third of the councillors in each area.

Bolton, Oldham and Stockport were NOC led by minority administrations, with the rest having Labour majorities. Two of the NOCs were Labour led before the elections, with Stockport providing the sole non-Labour leadership in GM by the Lib Dems.

Following last week’s results, Stockport has moved to majority Lib Dem control and Tameside has moved to NOC. Labour remains the largest party in each of these but large independent presences in each could make agreeing the leadership tricky.

And the fact that these elections were in thirds should not disguise the potential shift in GM. In Wigan, Labour lost every single ward that they previously held - with Reform gaining 24 - a result that would hand majority control to Reform if repeated next year. In Manchester, Labour won six councillors to 18 for the Greens - a result that would hand majority control to the Greens if repeated over the next two years.

So Labour retain control of the Combined Authority, but risk losing it if some of May 2026 results are repeated across councils in future years.

Liverpool City Region

Four of the Liverpool City Region’s six councils held elections and all four had a Labour majority. Sefton and St Helens had all outs, whereas Halton and Knowsley elected in thirds.

Labour managed to retain its majority in Sefton, despite the all outs, and also still controls Halton and Knowsley. St Helens saw a big shift to Reform who gained 34 Councillors to take control of the council.

This leaves Labour clearly in control of the combined authority.

South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire only had elections in two of its local authorities. Labour majority Barnsley had all out elections, whereas Labour led but NOC Sheffield was electing a third of its councillors.

In Barnsley, Reform took control of the council from Labour. This means that this is the first time since 1996 that Sir Steve Houghton will not be the leader of Barnsley Council. A 30 year track record as a Leader of the Council is some achievement!

In Sheffield, Labour remains the largest party on 25 councillors but closely followed by the Lib Dems on 22 and the Greens on 20. Reform gained 12 councillors in Sheffield for the first time.

So what does this all mean?

Firstly, in terms of composition, Labour will retain effective control in Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region and South Yorkshire. Though the results indicate that this could be lost in future election cycles if 2026 were repeated.

Boundary changes that led to all out elections allowed for the greatest changes in the North East and West Yorkshire - with Reform now controlling or being the largest party on a majority of councils - which will likely affect the final control of the combined authority (though noting my point at the beginning about the role of mayors and other members).

Secondly, this is unchartered terrain for these institutions. New ways of working and getting stuff done will need to be developed - see here for an interview in which Tracy Brabin talks about ‘relationship building’ with new councillors in the light of the results. A stable political environment will be key to getting change delivered successfully, at the same time as providing the conditions for public and private sector investment.

There is also an interesting issue in terms of ‘dual mandates’. In a very simple way, mayoralties are a bit like a president / governor system as we see in the US, with a separately elected body (like congress or state houses) that wields ultimate power. Via the combined authority model they need to wield power together over a strategic authority area. If mayors want to do one thing, but their councils want to do another, then compromises will have to be made - especially as recent changes in the English Devolution Act 2026 mean that mayors now have an effective veto over CA decisions.

Given the key link between councils and mayors through combined authorities, could it be worth considering the election of mayors and their constituent councils (via all outs) at the same time?

Finally, in terms of policy, there may be some things that Labour mayors and different parties could find common ground on. For example, in ‘the local future of public services’, I wrote about how Reform led County Durham council seemed to support Kim McGuinness’s child poverty plan.

Perhaps common cause can also be found on issues around transport like the West Yorkshire tram and bus franchising too? Public control of buses begins in West Yorkshire from next year, with the North East also in the process of following this franchising route that has worked well in Greater Manchester. But it may prove difficult to develop a united front - as the recent divide between a Reform-led council versus directly elected Labour mayors in Doncaster has come to a head over reopening the airport.

Time will tell - but for the sake of progress we must hope that our politicians can work together across these party lines to make positive change.

1. By my calculations, if West Yorkshire has 4 Reform leaders and 1 Labour leader then the political balance members will be allocated 1 Labour, 1 Green and 1 Conservative. This is based on the number of Councillors each party holds across West Yorkshire.