How the election results made history and set new records

History was made and records broken in this week’s elections in England , Scotland and Wales.

Here are some of the statistical milestones from a memorable set of results:
– Labour has lost power at a number of councils in England that it had previously controlled for decades.

At Gateshead, Sunderland and Wakefield, Labour had enjoyed an uninterrupted majority since the councils were established in their current form in 1973.

That long run has come to an end with Reform winning enough seats on all three authorities to take full control.

At Sandwell, Labour had a majority continuously since 1979 – until now, with Reform taking enough seats to become the new majority party.

Labour also lost its majority on Tameside council after an uninterrupted run of 47 years.

The party lost 14 of the 15 seats it was defending, all of them to Reform – enough to deprive Labour of a majority and leave the council with no group large enough to have overall control.

At Knowsley, Labour hung on to the majority it has enjoyed continuously since the local authority was first elected in 1973.

– In Essex, the Conservatives have lost their majority for the first time since 2001, with Reform making enough gains to take overall control.

At Hampshire, the Tories have lost their majority for the first time since 1997, again losing seats to Reform – although here no party ended up with enough councillors to take full control.

– History has been made in Wales, with Plaid Cymru becoming the largest party in the Senedd for the first time, the Greens and Reform winning their first seats in the Senedd and both Labour and the Conservatives scoring their worst performance in elections to the devolved parliament.

Labour had been the largest party in Wales for more than a century, winning the most MPs of any party at every general election since 1922 and securing the most seats in the Senedd since its creation in 1999.

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This unbroken run of success has now come to an abrupt halt.

– In Scotland, old records have been broken and new records set.

Both Labour and the Conservatives have seen their lowest number of members elected to the Scottish parliament.

The previous lows were 22 for Labour in 2021 and 15 for the Tories in 2011.

This election saw the parties win 17 and 12 seats respectively.

By contrast, the Greens have beaten their previous record of eight members elected to the parliament in 2021, winning 15 seats this time.

The SNP have won the most number of seats of any party for the fifth election in a row and will remain the largest group in parliament for a 19th consecutive year and beyond.

– In London, the Greens and Reform have both taken control of councils for the first time.

Hackney and Waltham Forest have been won by the Greens, while Reform has a majority at Havering.

– The Green party has won its first directly elected local mayors in London, in Hackney and Lewisham.

Zoe Garbett took 47% of the votes in Hackney, defeating the Labour incumbent Caroline Woodley, who won 36%.

At Lewisham, Liam Shrivastava won 40% of the vote, ahead of Labour candidate Amanda De Ryk on 35%.

In both boroughs, Labour had previously held the post of mayor continuously since the positions were created in 2002.

– Labour has lost overall control in London of two councils where it had enjoyed a majority since 1971: Haringey and Newham.

– The Liberal Democrats have won every one of the 54 seats at Richmond-upon-Thames, the first time in history the party has made a clean sweep of a council in London.

The Lib Dems also won both of the new authorities of East Surrey and West Surrey, which will replace Surrey county and district councils from 2027.