Local elections 2026 analysis: politics in Yorkshire is witnessing a major shift

Gone are the days when the three main parties - Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats - would hold the councils.

In Yorkshire, like across the country, we are moving towards a system of multi-party politics, and this means everything is likely to get less stable.

When the votes are finished being counted at the end of Saturday night, we could have Labour, Tory, Lib Dem, Reform, Green and even councils run by independents across the region.

Lord Robert Hayward, a Tory peer and pollster who has predicted local elections for years, told me that Leeds is the prime example of this.

“Leeds itself reflects what we now have in England, and we’ve not had in the whole of my lifetime and probably going back even further, and that is multi-party politics in all its forms,” he said.

“You can look at wards in Leeds and you’ve got Conservative vs Lib Dems in the north of the city, Labour vs Reform in the south of the city and Greens in various places.

“You can look at Leeds and it’s interesting because it’s reflective of the whole of British politics at the moment.”

The number of parties currently represented in Leeds Council is nine, and that figure could rise by this time next week.

In Bradford, the vote is likely to be split six ways. Good luck to the parties trying to come up with a coalition in that council.

Lord Hayward has identified Barnsley as where he expects “Labour to take a very serious mauling from Reform”.

He also believes that the Greens will do better than expected in Huddersfield, in Kirklees Council.

“The Greens did very well at the general election in Huddersfield, it was already one of their best results - they came within 5,000 votes of winning the seat,” he said.

They’ve spent a fair amount of time there. It isn’t one of the obvious places for Greens to do well - it’s not a London or a trendy part of Leeds.”

This is about to make life a lot more complicated, especially for our metro mayors.

We’ve already seen in South Yorkshire opposition councillors - Reform in Doncaster - are making life tricky for Mayor Oliver Coppard with the plans to reopen Doncaster Sheffield Airport.

The Reform group is currently trying to revoke a £57m loan to frontload the airport’s funding, with the project spearheaded by Labour Mayor of Doncaster Ros Jones.

We may see a number of Reform councils in West Yorkshire - what will they make of Tracy Brabin’s £2.5bn tram plan, which is due to connect Leeds and Bradford?

How will a potential Green council react to the increasing passenger numbers at Leeds Bradford Airport?

Yorkshire politics is set to change on Thursday, and no one knows what direction it will take.