2022 South Lanarkshire Council election

2022 South Lanarkshire Council election
← 2017 5 May 2022 (2022-05-05) 2027 →
All 64 seats to South Lanarkshire Council
33 seats needed for a majority
Registered258,158
Turnout44.3%
  First party Second party Third party
 
SNP
Lab
Con
Leader John Ross Joe Fagan Alex Allison
Party SNP Labour Conservative
Leader's seat Hamilton South East Kilbride Central North Clydesdale East
Last election 27 seats, 35.7% 22 seats, 29.0% 14 seats, 23.9%
Seats before 25 17 11
Seats won 27 24 7
Seat change Steady Increase 2 Decrease 7
Popular vote 42,295 36,305 19,803
Percentage 36.9% 31.7% 17.3%
Swing Increase 1.2% Increase 2.7% Decrease 6.6%
  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Ind
Grn
Leader Robert Brown Margaret Cooper Kirsten Robb
Party Liberal Democrats Independent Scottish Green
Leader's seat Rutherglen South Avondale and Stonehouse East Kilbride East
Last election 1 seat, 5.1% 0 seats, 2.5% 0 seats, 2.9%
Seats before 3 8 0
Seats won 3 2 1
Seat change Increase 2 Increase 2 Increase 1
Popular vote 6,221 5,503 3,711
Percentage 5.4% 4.8% 3.2%
Swing Increase 0.3% Increase 2.3% Increase 0.3%
Leader before election

John Ross
(SNP)
No overall control

Leader after election

Joe Fagan
(Labour)
No overall control

Elections to South Lanarkshire Council took place on 5 May 2022 on the same day as the 31 other Scottish local government elections. As with other Scottish council elections, it was held using single transferable vote (STV) – a form of proportional representation – in which multiple candidates are elected in each ward and voters rank candidates in order of preference.

For the second consecutive election, the Scottish National Party were returned with the most seats at 27 but remained shy of an overall majority. Labour made small gains to again finish second with an increased number of members with 24 – up two from 2017 – while the Conservatives lost half their number to return seven members. The Liberal Democrats and independents both made two gains to return three and two members respectively while the Greens won their first ever seat in South Lanarkshire.

On 18 May, Labour and the Lib Dems announced that they would run the council as a coalition, alongside one independent councillor, with support from the Conservatives.