2019 Cheshire East Council election

Elections to Cheshire East Council took place on Thursday 2 May 2019 in all 52 wards, with each ward returning between one and three councillors to the council. The Conservative Party lost overall control of the council, losing 17 seats; the Labour Party gained 9 seats, independents gained 6 and the Liberal Democrats gained 2.

2019 Cheshire East Council election
2 May 2019 (2019-05-02)
All 82 seats to Cheshire East Council
42 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party Third party
 
Party Conservative Labour Independent
Last election 51 seats, 45.0% 16 seats, 23.8% 1 seat, 2.8%
Seats won 34 25 11
Seat change 17 9 10
Popular vote 60,839 47,807 18,951
Percentage 35.5% 27.9% 11.1%
Swing 9.5% 4.1% 8.3%
  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Party Liberal Democrats Residents
Last election 2 seats, 5.8% 1 seat, 0.7%
Seats won 4 4
Seat change 2 3
Popular vote 18,876 5,34
Percentage 11.0% 3.1%
Swing 5.2% 2.4%
Winner of each seat at the 2019 Cheshire East Council election
Leader of the council before election

Rachel Bailey
Conservative

 Leader of the council after election

Sam Corcoran
Labour

The elections were held against a background of a number of controversies, with the council facing eight criminal investigations. Multiple Conservative Cabinet members lost their seats, with Ainsley Arnold (Planning) losing out to Independents in Macclesfield Tytherington and Paul Bates (Finance) falling to fifth place in Congleton East, whilst then-Leader of the Council Rachel Bailey came within 78 votes of losing her seat to the Liberal Democrats. The biggest shocks came in Broken Cross and Upton, with Labour's Rob Vernon and James Barber becoming the first ever Labour councillors for the area and unseating the Mayor-elect, Liz Durham, and Sandbach Ettiley Heath and Wheelock, where Laura Crane achieved a huge swing to win the seat for Labour against Conservative councillor Gail Wait.

No party or grouping held a majority of the council seats, and so after a few weeks of negotiation, Labour and the Independents agreed to form a joint-Cabinet that would run the council for the following year, with a focus on changing the system of governance to abolish the Cabinet and replace it with the old committee system.

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