Local elections: how Tories and Labour fared in the last three votes

A look back at key trends over the last four years, before parts of England go to the polls next month

Local elections are pored over by politicians and pundits who try to read the runes and extrapolate how parties and their leaders are faring at a national level. Coming midterm in the general election cycle, they are sometimes considered a way to give the prime minister a kicking.

But opinions on what the results mean should always be treated with a big dose of caution. Labour won the biggest share of the vote in the 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 local elections but went on to lose the general election in 2015.