The 2023 United Kingdom local elections were held on Thursday, 4 May 2023 in England and on Thursday 18 May 2023 in Northern Ireland.^[4] These included district councils, unitary authorities, and directly elected mayors in England, and included all local councils in Northern Ireland.^[5][6] Notably, these elections were the first to be held under the Elections Act 2022, a new voter identification law that is controversial,^[7] meaning voters were required to show photo ID when attending a polling station.^[8]

The elections in England saw significant losses for the governing Conservative Party, which lost over 1,000 council seats. The Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party of England and Wales all made gains, with Labour becoming the party with most members elected to local government for the first time since 2002. The Greens won majority control of Mid Suffolk District Council, the party’s first ever council majority.^[9]

In Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin emerged as the largest party in local government for the first time. These elections were also the first since the creation of Northern Ireland in which nationalist candidates received more votes than unionists.