Local elections Sheffield 2024 LIVE: Latest results and find out who has been voted in

Good morning and welcome to The Star’s live blog for the results of the local elections in Sheffield.

We’ll be bring you the latest results for the Steel City’s ward councillors and the Mayor of South Yorkshire as it happens.

Sheffield is a different battleground compared to most other regions in England today.

Today’s local elections are considered the last ‘snapshot’ of the nation’s feelings ahead of the general election, which may even be this year.

That feeling so far is looking bleak for the Conservatives.

As of 6.32am, Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens and scattered independents have all made double digit gains - while the Tories have lost over 100 councillors.

But this drama doesn’t really make a splash in Sheffield, which has exactly one Conservative councillor - Lewis Chinchen, for Stocksbridge and Upper Don.

And, last election, none of the major parties in Sheffield made any significant gains or losses - they just sort of “swapped” seats with each other.

However, the city council election 2024 expected to be a nail-biter for Labour and the Lib Dems.

Labour are still the biggest party with 30 members but they are only one ahead of the Lib Dems, so the council remains under no overall control.

This situation followed the departure of eight long-standing Labour councillors to form the Sheffield Community Councillors group.

It may lead to an upset as one party pulls clear ahead today, or it could be down to the wire once again.

You may be asking yourself, ‘wasn’t there a local election in Sheffield last year? Didn’t we do all this already?’

Sheffield holds three local elections for its ward councillors within a four year cycle.

Each of Sheffield’s 27 City Council Wards have three ward councillors, and residents going to the polls are voting for a single one of those three seats each time.

It’s a system designed to ‘refresh’ each ward’s control, and means one-third of Sheffield’s 84 councillors are up for election.

Meanwhile, in Firth Park, residents got to vote for two councillors following the resignation of Abtisam Mohammed, who resigned before the election ahead of her bid to become Labour’s Sheffield Central Parliamentary candidate at the next general election.

It brings the total number of seats being elected today to 29.

Of course, in 2023, there was absolutely no change on how many councillors each party had. No one made any gains or losses at all.

In Sheffield, Labour are still the biggest party with 30 members but they are only one ahead of the Lib Dems, so the council remains under no overall control.

However, Labour had 39 seats at the end of the 2023 elections. How did they lose eight seats?

As well as the previously mentioned resignation of Abtisam Mohammed so she can stand as an MP, the drop in seats came as a result of the departure of seven long-standing Labour councillors to form the Sheffield Community Councillors group.

The seven included former leader Terry Fox, his wife Denise Fox, ex-deputy leader Julie Grocutt, Tony Damms, Dianne Hurst, former finance committee chair Bryan Lodge, and Garry Weatherall.

They were already suspended from the Labour whip after voting to oppose the draft Local Plan because of their opposition to a travellers’ site on Eckington Way, near Crystal Peaks.

Coun Fox was forced out of the leader’s role in May when the central party put Sheffield Labour into special measures and sent a team in to direct the local election campaign. That itself happened in the wake of the tree-felling scandal and the subsequent Lowcock Report inquiry that was highly critical of the council.

In the cascade that followed, Sheffield LibDems criticised the Labour Party’s treatment of seven city councillors and alleged they were “bullied and harassed”.

Read more here:

Nationwide, yesterday was also the day to vote for each county’s new Police and Crime Commissioner.

That may not have been immediately obvious in Sheffield’s polling booth yesterday, where there were only slips for the ward councillors and the Mayor of South Yorkshire.

This is because the office of the Police and Crime Commissioner is being transferred to the Mayor of South Yorkshire.

Current PCC Dr Alan Billings - who was elected 10 years ago in 2014 and whose term of office ends effectively today - supports the proposals, as do all four local authorities in South Yorkshire.

Mayors are typically elected for a period of four years, with no limit to the number of terms served. Oliver Coppard was only elected into the role back in 2022 - however after consultation the the role was merged with police and crime commissioner. This meant that rather than taking place in 2026 an early election was held in 2024

The candidates who stood in this year's mayoral election were incumbent Oliver Coppard (Labour), Nick Allen (Conservative), Douglas Johnson (Green), Hannah Kitching (Liberal Democrats) and David Bentley (SDP).

As of 7.15am, Sheffield has still not declared results for its ward councillors and South Yorkshire has not declared its new mayor.

35 out of 107 councils have posted results.

Gains and losses are as follows:

- Labour: 319 seats, +52

- Conservatives: 116 seats, -122

- Lib Dems: 112 seats, +18

- Independent: 65, +39

- Green: 21, +13

Here are some of the key results declared so far:

- Hartlepool

Three years ago Labour lost the Hartlepool parliamentary by-election to the Conservatives - an event that reportedly led Sir Keir Starmer to consider resigning as party leader.

This year Hartlepool gave Labour cause for celebration, with the party winning control of the council for the first time since 2019 thanks to a net gain of seven seats, while the Tories lost six.

- Harlow

Keir Starmer and his deputy Angela Rayner toured the Essex town of Harlow 24 hours before the polls opened, in a symbolic visit to a part of the country that will be a key battleground at the general election.

But while Labour did make progress in Harlow in Thursday's council elections, it fell short of an overall majority by the narrowest of margins, ending up with 16 seats, just one behind the Tories on 17.

- Rushmoor

There was better news for Labour deep in the so-called "blue wall" of the traditional Conservative heartland of Hampshire.

The party gained seven seats and a majority on Rushmoor council, an area that includes the army town of Aldershot, while the Tories lost eight seats and overall control.

- Redditch

Labour will be pleased with its performance in the Worcestershire council of Redditch - another important battleground at the general election - where the party picked up nine seats and overall control, while the Conservatives saw their tally drop by 11.

- South Tyneside

It was a less cheery picture for Labour in South Tyneside, where the party suffered a net loss of 10 seats.

Independent candidates gained nine seats and the Greens gained two, while the Tories lost their only councillor.

Labour still has a majority here, but only just: the new council will have 28 Labour councillors, 15 Independents and 11 Greens.

- Sunderland

The Reform Party had a full or near-full slate of candidates in only a handful of councils holding elections this year and Sunderland was one of a few places where it fought every seat.

While the party did not win any of them, it did beat the Conservatives into third place in 16 of the 25 seats up for grabs while Labour made a net gain of six to increase its comfortable majority.

- Thurrock

This Essex council was another one of Labour's top targets in a key Conservative-Labour election battleground.

The party needed to gain six seats to take control of Thurrock, which has been run by the Tories for the past few years during a period of turbulence that saw the council declared effectively bankrupt in December 2022.

Labour ended up making a net gain of eight seats, enough for a clear majority, with Independents picking up two and the Tories suffering a net loss of 10.

- Police & crime commissioners

Two of the 37 police & crime commissioner results for England and Wales have been declared so far, with Labour gaining Cumbria from the Conservatives and the Tories holding Lincolnshire.

The Star understands the results of the election for Mayor of South Yorkshire will be declared tomorrow.

Here are all the incumbent candidates today who are fighting to keep their City Council seats.

As a quirk of Sheffield’s one-third-of-councillors voting system, some seats don’t have an incumbent due to councillors stepping down, the resignation of the seven Labour councillors to become independents.

Beauchief & Greenhill - Sophie Thornton, LD

Beighton - Ann Woolhouse, LD

Birley - No incumbent running for reelection

Broomhill & Sharrow Vale - Brian Holmshaw, Green

Burngreave - Safiya Saeed, Lab.

City - Douglas Johnson, Green.

Crookes & Crosspool - Ruth Milsom, Labour and Co-operative Party

Darnall - No incumbent running for reelection

Dore & Totley - No Incumbent running for reelection

East Ecclesfield - Alan Woodcock, LD

Ecclesall - Roger Davison, LD.

Firth Park - Fran Belbin, Labour and Co-operative Party

Fulwood - Sue Alston, Liberal Democrats

Gleadless Valley - Alexi Dimond, Green

Graves Park - No incumbent running for reelection

Hillsborough - Gilligan Kubo, Green

Manor Castle - No incumbent running for reelection

Mosborough - Tony Downing, Lab.

Nether Edge & Sharrow - Maroof Raouf, Green

Park & Arbourthorne - No incumbent running for reelection

Richmond - David Barker, Lab.

Shiregreen & Brightside - No incumbent

Southey - Tony Damms, ind.

Stannington - Richard Williams, LD.

Stocksbridge & Upper Don - No incumbent

Walkley - No incumbent running for reelection

West Ecclesfield - Ann Whitaker, LD.

Woodhouse - Mick Rooney, Labour and Co-operative Party

(Edit: reworded ‘no incumbent’ to ‘no incumbent running for reelection’)

Here is the make up of Sheffield City Council prior to the 2024 local elections.

The council has had no party in overall control since 2019 when Labour was the frontrunner.

It makes today’s elections all the more nailbiting following the resignation of seven senior Labour councillors, meaning the party is only one seat ahead of the Liberal Democrats.

Could today be the day one party pulls ahead of the others?