2000 Milton Keynes Council election explained

The 2000 Milton Keynes Council election took place on 4 May 2000 to elect members of Milton Keynes Council (a unitary authority) in Buckinghamshire, England. One third of the council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control.^[1]

After the election, the composition of the council was

• Labour 22
• Liberal Democrat 20
• Conservative 8
• Independent 1^[2]

Campaign

The Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair came to Milton Keynes to launch his party's local election campaign.^[3] Labour were defending control of Milton Keynes council, but before the election were relying on the casting vote of the mayor to keep control, after 2 Labour councillors left the party to become independents.^[4]

The election in Milton Keynes saw a relaxation of the rules for requesting a postal vote, allowing anyone who wanted to vote by post.^[5] As a results the number of postal vote requests increased from the normal 1,100 to 3,600.^[5]

Election result

The results saw no party win a majority on the council, with Labour losing seats, including 3 to the Conservatives.^[6]

Notes and References

1. News: Milton Keynes. BBC News Online. 12 March 2011.
2. News: Local council results. 6 May 2000. Financial Times. 6.
3. News: Blair goes on offensive in run-up to elections. 14 April 2000. Financial Times. 4.
4. News: Local voters set to kick Blair over mayoral 'fix'. Salman. Saba. 25 April 2000. Evening Standard. 22.
5. News: Comment & Analysis: Analysis: Making it easy: Experiments to improve the turnout in local elections have had an impact, although some voters still want to use a polling station. Wainwright. Martin. 15 May 2000. The Guardian. 17.
6. News: Labour loses 600 seats in Tory fightback. Salman. Saba. 5 May 2000. Evening Standard. 52.