2023 Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council election

4 May 2023
All 57 seats on Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council 29 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Gerald Cooney Doreen Dickinson Alan Huntbach Party Labour Conservative Green Seats before 48 8 1 Seats won 51 6 0 Seat change 3 2 1 Popular vote 71,400 26,685 10,865 Percentage 63.4% 23.7% 9.6% Swing 8.8% 12.6% 0.9%
Winner of each seat at the 2023 Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council election
Leader before election Gerald Cooney Labour Leader after election Gerald Cooney Labour

The 2023 Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council elections took place on 4 May 2023 alongside other local elections in the United Kingdom. Due to boundary changes, all 57 seats on Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council were contested.

Labour retained its majority on the council.^[1]

Background

The Local Government Act 1972 created a two-tier system of metropolitan counties and districts covering Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, the West Midlands, and West Yorkshire starting in 1974. Manchester was a district of the Greater Manchester metropolitan county.^[2] The Local Government Act 1985 abolished the metropolitan counties, with metropolitan districts taking on most of their powers as metropolitan boroughs. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority was created in 2011 and began electing the mayor of Greater Manchester from 2017, which was given strategic powers covering a region coterminous with the former Greater Manchester metropolitan county.^[3]

Since its creation in 1974, Tameside has always been under Labour control, aside from 1978 to 1982 when the Conservatives held a majority.^[4]

In June 2022 the Local Government Boundary Commission for England made The Tameside (Electoral Changes) Order 2022, which officially abolished the existing 19 wards and created 19 new wards with different boundaries. Because of this change, all 57 seats on the council, three per ward, were to be contested.^[5]

Electoral process

The election took place using the plurality block voting system, a form of first-past-the-post voting, with each ward being represented by three councillors. The candidate with the most votes in each ward will serve a four-year term ending in 2027, the second-placed candidate will serve a three-year term anding in 2026 and the third-placed candidate will serve a one-year term ending in 2024.^[5]

All registered electors (British, Irish, Commonwealth and European Union citizens) living in Oldham aged 18 or over were entitled to vote in the election. People who lived at two addresses in different councils, such as university students with different term-time and holiday addresses, were entitled to be registered for and vote in elections in both local authorities. Voting in-person at polling stations took place from 07:00 to 22:00 on election day, and voters were able to apply for postal votes or proxy votes in advance of the election.

Previous council composition

Results

2023 Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council election
Party		Seats	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Labour	51	3	89.5	63.4	71,400
	Conservative	6	2	10.5	23.7	26,685
	Green	0	1		9.6	10,865
	Independent	0	0		1.8	2,078
	Liberal Democrats	0	0		0.8	909
	Women's Equality	0	0		0.4	462
	Monster Raving Loony	0	0		0.2	244

References