by Stephen Fisher, 3rd May 2022.
There are local elections tomorrow in England, Scotland, and Wales. Table 1 below shows my forecasts for net seat changes for each. They are based on projecting changes in opinion poll performance since the last round of local elections, with different methods for the different countries as discussed below. They represent what we might expect if the changes in party performance in local elections are on par with changes in the opinion polls.
Table 1. Forecasts for English local election net seat gains/losses for 2022
| England | Wales | Scotland | Overall | |
| Con | -165 | -80 | -36 | -281 |
| Lab | +140 | +80 | +84 | +304 |
| LD | +70 | 0 | +6 | +76 |
| PC | 0 | 0 | ||
| SNP | -24 | -24 |
The Conservatives are expected to lose seats in all three countries. They are defending a strong 2017 base in Scotland and Wales, and dropped in the polls since both 2017 and 2018 when the English seats were last fought.
Labour are expected to be the main beneficiaries from Conservative losses. The projections suggest Labour might recover most but not all the losses they suffered in 2017 in Scotland and Wales. In England, Labour are trying this week to build on cumulative gains from 2010, 2014 and 2018. They already control over half the seats up this year. Since Labour are at 40% in the polls, their poll support is no greater than is was in 2018. Instead of gaining seats from winning more voters, Labour are projected to make council seat gains in England primarily from the drop in the Conservative vote. But, as discussed below, last-year’s experience shows there are various reasons why that might not happen.
Perhaps most surprising of the forecasts is the projected drop in SNP seats from what was considered a disappointing performance in 2017, winning only 32% of the first-preference vote when typically the party has been winning at least 45% of the vote in Scotland-wide elections since the independence referendum in 2014. My projection for the Scottish locals this week is based on changes since 2017 in local-election first-preference vote intention polls. Even general-election vote-intention polls show no advance on 2017 for the SNP. The party will be hoping that more of the people who vote for them in Westminster and Holyrood elections will support them in the locals this week.
England
Typically, the Conservatives lose English council seats when their lead over Labour in the opinion polls drops from what it was the last time the election was fought. Similarly, if the Tories extend their lead, then they typically make net gains. The graph below shows that pattern for local elections in England when the Conservatives were in government and the local elections were not on the same day as a general election. There is a strong correlation, but with a lot of noise around it, meaning any forecast comes with a big range of uncertainty. This year either of the two main parties could be either up or down by more than 100 seats based on the variation in previous local elections.
Last year’s local elections contributed to that noise. The graph above distinguishes between what happened in the elections that were delayed from 2020 because of the Covid pandemic, and those that happened in 2021 as scheduled. The Conservatives substantially outperformed expectations from the historical pattern for both sets of elections. They made +248 gains in the “2020” set despite polls (in 2021) showing only a 1-point increase in the Con-Lab lead since 2016. For the 2021 set, the Tories suffered a net loss of only 14 seats despite the poll lead dropping by 13 points from the high that Theresa May enjoyed in the 2017 local elections (before losing most of it at the general election the following month).
Continue reading Forecasting Local Election net seat gains/losses 2022
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