Why 2026 council election will be different

Reform UK now leads Warwickshire County Council after one of the biggest moments in local politics during 2025.

Having won the election in May, Reform's appointment of teenager George Finch as leader of the council kept the county council in the national media spotlight.

And it has hardly quietened down since that summer appointment. Public spats around the council have drawn the attention of Reform leader Nigel Farage and the party's head of policy, Zia Yusuf.

Finch has found himself involved in national rows with Labour frontbenchers, including the then Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson.

But the leader's appointment, and those subsequent headline-grabbing moments, were only made possible because the county held an "all-out" election, where every single council seat is up for grabs.

Neighbouring Coventry rarely sees such excitement at election time. The council, under Labour control for the past 15 years, is shielded from such seismic changes by a system which usually sees just a third of council seats up for election at any one time.

But 2026 will be different. Every single one of Coventry's 54 seats will be up for grabs on 7 May as a result of electoral boundaries being redrawn.

As Coventry's neighbours can demonstrate, these moments have the potential to deliver disruption.

In Warwickshire, the Conservatives - the dominant force in the county for the past 20 years - were swept aside.

Reform is a party that has built its reputation on its desire to disrupt - and the party has openly said it wants to use that experience in Warwickshire to replicate success across the border.

That won't be easy. Labour currently sits on 39 seats, safely over the 28 needed for overall control of Coventry City Council.

Since 1979, Coventry has mainly had Labour leaders, with just a six-year spell led by the Tories between 2004 and 2010.

Back then, the Conservatives were the city's disruptors. However, recent elections and polling indicate the Tories face a big challenge to replicate those levels of success this time around.

Senior Labour and Conservatives in Coventry quietly believe Labour's biggest threat to control of the council now comes from Reform.

That's a view publicly endorsed by two Tory councillors who defected to Reform in 2025, giving the party two councillors in the run-up to the election.

Labour also faces a threat from the left. The Green Party already has two councillors on the city council. And there are "new kids on the block" in the form of Your Party, co-founded by Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana.

The potential impact of this can be seen in the fact one councillor, elected as a Labour candidate, now sits in the chamber as an independent, in an alliance with the Greens, having left to back Your Party.

Whether Your Party decides to field or back other candidates in Coventry will be watched closely by Labour leaders in the city.

Those of a disruptive persuasion will be salivating at the prospect of all-out elections in Coventry in 2026. For Labour, the hope will be that Coventry doesn't provide one of the biggest local political stories of 2026.

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