Counting is almost complete across Hampshire after hundreds of thousands cast their votes in the 2026 local elections. <\/p>\n
The Conservatives have lost control of Hampshire County Council, but both Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats are making gains. <\/p>\n
Reform have gained a number of seats, including in Aldershot South, Farnborough North, Farnborough West, Ringwood and New Milton. <\/p>\n
The count is underway for Hampshire County Council in Rushmoor. Credit: ITV Meridian<\/p>\n
The Liberal Democrats have also made gains – taking seats in Alton Town, Hartley Wintney and Yateley West, and in Lyndhurst and Fordingbridge.<\/p>\n
The council which is now under no overall control, is one of the biggest councils in the country, serving nearly 1.5million people, and managing a budget of more than \u00a33billion.<\/p>\n
For the Green Party, they have taken a seat from the Conservatives in Emsworth and St Faiths. Currently, the only division Labour have held, is Basingstoke North.<\/p>\n
Use our interactive map to see the results of each seat in the Hampshire County Council elections.<\/p>\n
The new makeup of Hampshire County Council is now as follows: <\/p>\n
*A recount is due on Aldershot North, and will be declared later on.<\/p>\n
For the unitary authorities, Labour have lost control of Southampton City Council with no one party taking overall control.<\/p>\n
Labour remains the largest party on the council with 24 seats, but is two short of a majority, while Reform has eight, the Liberal Democrats have seven, and the Conservatives and Greens both have six.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Southampton City Council said discussions will now take place between the political groups to agree how an Administration can be formed, with the results announced in ‘the near future.’<\/p>\n
Meanwhile in Portsmouth, the Lib Dems have taken control of the city council. <\/p>\n
A party spokesperson said: \u201cThis is a stonking success for the Liberal Democrats in Portsmouth. <\/p>\n
“We\u2019ve held our ground and grown, despite Reform throwing everything they had at this campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cAcross the city, many voters have given short shrift to Farage \u2013 someone who chooses to side with Donald Trump even when he disparages our Royal Navy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Use our interactive map to see the overall results for borough and district councils in Hampshire.<\/p>\n
On the Isle of Wight, every seat is up for grabs. All parties are trying to win seats on the island, which is currently under no overall control.<\/p>\n
Elections should have taken place last year, but they were delayed because of local government reorganisation.<\/p>\n
The majority of smaller local councils have held elections in Hampshire too. <\/p>\n
Only Test Valley, New Forest and East Hampshire were not up for election this year. <\/p>\n
Hart District Council remains in no overall control, whilst in Fareham, the Tories have kept control of the council. <\/p>\n
Havant Borough Council remains under no overall control.<\/p>\n
In Gosport, Reform UK are hoping to make gains from the Liberal Democrats. <\/p>\n
Use our interactive map to see the overall results for unitary councils in Hampshire.<\/p>\n
Next year people will, if government reforms go ahead, be voting for new ‘super’ authorities, as part of reorganisation plans. <\/p>\n
These votes could well be the last for the councils in their current forms, with new South East and South West Hampshire authorities, along with a Mid Hampshire and North Hampshire councils being formed in 2028. <\/p>\n
The Isle of Wight however will keep its council, but will fall under the new Hampshire mayor, who is due to be elected later this decade. <\/p>\n
Reporting History sees journalists join News At Ten anchor Tom Bradby to revisit their remarkable on-the-day reports of the defining events of the modern age. Listen to the episodes below…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Counting is almost complete across Hampshire after hundreds of thousands cast their votes in the 2026 local elections.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-31473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-uk","9":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116538452458246316","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}