| Type: | legislative |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Country: | Portsmouth |
| Previous Year: | 2023 |
| Previous Election: | 2023 Portsmouth City Council election |
| Next Year: | 2026 |
| Next Election: | 2026 Portsmouth City Council election |
| Seats For Election: | 14 out of 42 seats to Portsmouth City Council |
| Majority Seats: | 22 |
| Party1: | Liberal Democrats (UK) |
| Leader1: | Steve Pitt |
| Seats Before1: | 18 |
| Seats After1: | 19 |
| Seat Change1: | 1 |
| Popular Vote1: | 12,492 |
| Percentage1: | 30.0% |
| Swing1: | 0.7% |
| Leader2: | George Madgwick |
| Party2: | Portsmouth Independent Party |
| Seats Before2: | 6 |
| Seats After2: | 9 |
| Seat Change2: | 3 |
| Popular Vote2: | 9,578 |
| Percentage2: | 23.0% |
| Swing2: | 6.8% |
| Leader3: | Charlotte Gerada |
| Party3: | Labour Party (UK) |
| Seats Before3: | 8 |
| Seats After3: | 8 |
| Popular Vote3: | 11,556 |
| Percentage3: | 27.7% |
| Swing3: | 0.2% |
| Leader4: | Simon Bosher |
| Party4: | Conservative Party (UK) |
| Seats Before4: | 8 |
| Seats After4: | 4 |
| Seat Change4: | 4 |
| Popular Vote4: | 6,745 |
| Percentage4: | 16.2% |
| Swing4: | 3.4% |
| Party5: | Independent (politician) |
| Seats Before5: | 2 |
| Seats After5: | 2 |
| Popular Vote5: | N/A |
| Percentage5: | N/A |
| Swing5: | 2.1% |
| Leader | |
| Before Election: | Steve Pitt Liberal Democrats |
| Before Party: | No overall control |
| Posttitle: | Leader after election |
| After Election: | Steve Pitt Liberal Democrats |
| After Party: | No overall control |
The 2024 Portsmouth City Council election took place on Thursday 2 May 2024, alongside the other local elections in the United Kingdom on the same day. 14 of the 42 members of Portsmouth City Council in Hampshire were elected.
The council remained under no overall control, being led by a Liberal Democrat minority administration.[1]
Portsmouth was created as a unitary authority in 1997. Labour controlled the council from its creation until 2000, when the council fell into no overall control.[2] The Liberal Democrats first won the council in 2010, and held a majority until 2014.[3] The Conservatives ran the council as a minority administration, with support from UKIP,[4] until 2018, when the Liberal Democrats formed a minority administration which has governed Portsmouth since.[5] In the previous election, the Liberal Democrats won 7 seats (up 1) with 29.3% of the vote, Labour won 2 with 27.5%, the Conservatives won 1 (down 5) with 19.6%, the Portsmouth Independent Party won 3 (up 3) with 16.2%, and independents won 1 (up 1) with 2.1%.
The seats up for election in 2024 were last contested in 2021; because of the delay of all local elections due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the seats are up for election after 3 years rather than the usual 4. In that election, the Conservatives gained 1 seat with 36.0% of the vote, the Liberal Democrats lost 2 with 26.6%, Labour held their 2 seats up for election with 28.0%, and independents gained 1 with 3.7%.
| After 2023 election | Before 2024 election[6] | After 2024 election | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Seats | Party | Seats | Party | Seats | |||
| 18 | 18 | 19 | ||||||
| 8 | 8 | 4 | ||||||
| 7 | 8 | 8 | ||||||
| 6 | 6 | 9 | ||||||
| 3 | 2 | 2 | ||||||
Comparisons for the purpose of determining a gain, hold or loss of a seat, and for all percentage changes, is to the last time these specific seats were up for election in 2021. An asterisk indicates the incumbent councillor. The results for each ward were:[8]
Incumbents are marked with an asterisk:*