2025 local election candidate data summary
Find out if you have an election and who your candidates are at WhoCanIVoteFor.co.uk.
The elections
1,750 English councillors are due to be elected on 1 May: 1,657 scheduled elections and 93 by-elections. This is the smallest set of local elections since 1975.
There are also six mayoral elections, one parliamentary by-election, and one Welsh council by-election.
The candidates
8,619 candidates are standing across 1,497 council wards on 1 May.
| Party | Total candidates | Seats contested |
|---|---|---|
| Reform UK | 1,705 | 97.4% |
| Conservative and Unionist Party | 1,687 | 96.4% |
| Labour Party | 1,633 | 93.3% |
| Liberal Democrats | 1,474 | 84.2% |
| Green Party | 1,260 | 71.9% |
| All other parties | 354 | - |
| Independent candidates | 507 | - |
| Total | 8,619 | - |
No seats have been won uncontested on the mainland, but four of the Isles of Scilly’s five wards are uncontested.
Get the data
A full CSV download of all candidates standing on 1 May is available from our candidate database. If you publish anything using it, please cite Democracy Club and provide a link to democracyclub.org.uk.
Our volunteers
Each year, Democracy Club’s amazing network of volunteers collects thousands of nomination papers published on council websites. These are added to our database (with a little help from our own automation) and double checked for accuracy.
Our work wouldn’t happen without our volunteers. Every single edit helps, but you can see the edit leader board here. Thank you!