Local elections 2026 and the threat of the far-right
On 7 May 2026, 5,036 council seats across 136 English local authorities will be up for election. This includes all 32 London borough councils, 32 or 36 metropolitan boroughs, 18 unitary authorities, six county councils, and 50 district councils. Voters will also elect six directly elected mayors in England.
On the same day, elections will take place for the Senedd in Wales and the Scottish Parliament.
Why do the 2026 local elections matter?
What local councils do
Local elections matter for communities across the country for reasons many of us experience every day.
Councils are the level of government we are closest to and interact with most often. They are responsible for potholes, rubbish collection, air quality, parks, streets, housing, and the everyday infrastructure that shapes our homes and neighbourhoods.
The impact of councils is even more crucial to consider as, since 2018, 13 councils have declared effective bankruptcy. In the 30 years before, 1 council did. Leaders are now warning that with “serious” change “upwards of 80% of councils are in some danger” of bankruptcy.
Across the country, councils are struggling or close to collapse. With them weakens the first line of democratic accountability in our communities, and an important defence against the far-right.
The threat of Reform UK
With the Labour Party in sustained decline in opinion polls, the 2026 local and Senedd elections risk becoming a stark reflection of the Government’s failure to deliver meaningful change.
In a highly fragmented political landscape, Reform UK could win hundreds of council seats on a minority of the vote, with serious consequences for hundreds of thousands of people.
The warning signs are already there. The 2025 local elections were widely described as a sweeping victory for Reform UK. The party won the most seats overall and secured two newly created regional mayoralties in Greater Lincolnshire and the Hull and East Yorkshire combined authority.
However, Labour’s decline has also created space for other progressive parties. The historic Plaid Cymru victory in Caerphilly’s by-election last year, alongside a surge in Green Party council seat wins, shows that alternatives are gaining ground.
The question is whether this will be enough to prevent a Reform UK breakthrough in 2026.
We need Progressive Alliances to stop the far-right
For the first time in history, five parties are polling above 10 per cent nationally. Under the outdated First Past the Post voting system, this fragmentation increases the risk of what Compass has called “progressive tragedies”. These occur when a majority of voters support progressive parties, but regressive parties still take control on a minority of the vote.
In 2025, this happened in 75 per cent of councils up for election, including places such as Buckinghamshire and Cornwall.
At a time when many political parties are increasingly hostile to cooperation, the reality is clear. Progressives must work together if they are serious about keeping the far right out of power.
Compass has been at the forefront of campaigning for progressive alliances for many years, and 2026 will be no different.
We are currently commissioning new research analysing voting intentions for the 2026 local, Senedd and Holyrood elections. This work will identify which seats face the highest risk of progressive tragedies, and where cooperation between progressive parties could make the greatest difference.
Progressive alliances and cooperation in local politics
Compass has a long history of campaigning around local elections.
From North Devon to North Yorkshire, we know that lasting political change comes from the ground up. That is why our local groups, run by members across the country, are the driving force behind our election work.
With the support of our members, we have published research, highlighted leaders doing politics differently, and shown that communities across Britain are cooperative, ambitious and caring.
As part of our programme of events and campaigns at the 2024 local elections, Compass ran a series of events called ‘Local Leaders Spotlight’ and an individual webinar on democratic innovations in local government, and at the local level more generally.
Cooperation between progressives is often thought to entail ‘lowest common denominator politics’ – agreement over the most pedestrian and inconsequential policies, with consensus not reached on more substantive and ambitious matters. We disagree! The conversations we held for the 2024 local elections intended to combat this misconception and shine a spotlight on how cooperation can facilitate new ways of thinking and governing, especially given the pressures and constraints imposed on local government.
Not yet convinced? Listen back to some of those events yourself, with speakers such as Cllr Lucy Nethsingha of Cambridgeshire County Council, and Matthew Brown of Preston City Council.
Get involved
All our work on the ground at elections happens through our local groups. Check this page or get in touch to join or start a group where you are.