2022 Fife Council election

Elections to Fife 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 as the largest party with 34 seats but remained shy of an overall majority. Despite a small increase in vote share, Labour lost four seats but again finished second 20 councillors. The Liberal Democrats leapfrogged the Conservatives into third place after gaining six seats to hold 13 while the Conservatives lost almost half their number to return eight members. For the second time since the local government reforms in the 1990s, no independent candidates were elected.

With support from the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives, Labour formed a minority administration to run the council and David Ross was elected as council leader in his own right having previously been co-leader after the 2017 election.

Previous election
At the previous election in 2017, the Scottish National Party (SNP) won the most seats for the first time in a Fife election after gaining three seats to hold 29. Labour lost 11 seats to hold 24 as they were replaced as the largest party. The Conservatives made a net gain of 12 to hold 15 seats while the Liberal Democrats lost three seats to hold seven.

Source:

Electoral system
The election used the 22 wards created by the Fifth Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements, with 75 councillors being elected. Each ward elected either 3 or 4 members, using the single transferable vote (STV) electoral system – a form of proportional representation – where candidates are ranked in order of preference.

Composition
Several changes in the composition of the council occurred between the 2017 and 2022 elections. Most were changes to the political affiliation of councillors including SNP councillor Kate Stewart who left the party to become an independent, Conservative councillor Linda Holt who resigned from the party to become an independent and SNP councillor John Docherty who stood as an independent in the 2022 elections. Three by-elections resulted in a Conservative gain from Labour, an SNP hold and an SNP gain from the Conservatives.

Retiring councillors
Source:

Candidates
The total number of candidates fell from 185 in 2017 to 179. As was the case five years previous, the SNP fielded the highest number of candidates at 39 (six less than in 2017) across the 22 wards. Both Labour and the Conservatives also fielded at least one candidate in every ward but the 32 candidates fielded by Labour were four less than in 2017 whereas the Conservatives increased their total number of candidates from 22 to 23. The Liberal Democrats contested all but one ward, fielding a total of 26 candidates (up two from 2017). The Greens also contested all but one ward however, the 21 candidates fielded by the party were three less than the previous election. The number of independent candidates contesting the election fell from 29 in 2017 to just eight. As with the previous election, both the Libertarians and the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) fielded a single candidate. For the first time, the Scottish Family Party (14), the Alba Party (11), the Independence for Scotland Party (ISP) (one), the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) (one) and Sovereignty (one) fielded candidates in a Fife election. Neither Solidarity nor the British Unionist Party (BUP), who had contested the 2017 election, fielded any candidates.

Election results
Source:

Note: Votes are the sum of first preference votes across all council wards. The net gain/loss and percentage changes relate to the result of the previous Scottish local elections on 4 May 2017. This is because STV has an element of proportionality which is not present unless multiple seats are being elected. This may differ from other published sources showing gain/loss relative to seats held at the dissolution of Scotland's councils.

Ward summary
!rowspan=2 align="left"|Ward ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs !rowspan=2|Total Cllrs !colspan=2|SNP !colspan=2|Lab !colspan=2|Lib Dem !colspan=2|Con !colspan=2|Others !align="left"|Total !36.9 !34 !24.5 !20 !16.8 !13 !14.4 !8 !7.5 !0 !75
 * - class="unsortable" align="centre"
 * - class="unsortable" align="center"
 * align="left"|West Fife and Coastal Villages
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|39.1
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|1
 * 32.5
 * 1
 * 6.7
 * 0
 * 17.1
 * 1
 * 7.9
 * 0
 * 3
 * align="left"|Dunfermline North
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|36.2
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|1
 * 28.5
 * 1
 * 6.4
 * 0
 * 17.4
 * 1
 * 8.2
 * 0
 * 3
 * align="left"|Dunfermline Central
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|33.4
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|2
 * 24.6
 * 1
 * 24.7
 * 1
 * 9.4
 * 0
 * 7.9
 * 0
 * 4
 * align="left"|Dunfermline South
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|33.5
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|2
 * 23.2
 * 1
 * 19.5
 * 1
 * 10.6
 * 0
 * 6.2
 * 0
 * 4
 * align="left"|Rosyth
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|39.4
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|2
 * 26.3
 * 1
 * 6.5
 * 0
 * 16.8
 * 0
 * 11.1
 * 0
 * 3
 * align="left"|Inverkeithing and Dalgety Bay
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|38.8
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|2
 * 18.5
 * 1
 * 4.0
 * 0
 * 29.2
 * 1
 * 9.4
 * 0
 * 3
 * align="left"|Cowdenbeath
 * 36.6
 * 2
 * bgcolor="#eea2ad"|38.0
 * bgcolor="#eea2ad"|1
 * 1.4
 * 0
 * 28.9
 * 1
 * 5.0
 * 0
 * 4
 * align="left"|Lochgelly, Cardenden and Benarty
 * 43.2
 * 2
 * bgcolor="#eea2ad"|43.6
 * bgcolor="#eea2ad"|2
 * 1.8
 * 0
 * 7.7
 * 0
 * 3.8
 * 0
 * 4
 * align="left"|Burntisland, Kinghorn and Western Kirkcaldy
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|37.9
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|1
 * 29.4
 * 1
 * 3.5
 * 0
 * 21.0
 * 1
 * 8.3
 * 0
 * 3
 * align="left"|Kirkcaldy North
 * 38.9
 * 1
 * bgcolor="#eea2ad"|39.0
 * bgcolor="#eea2ad"|1
 * colspan="2" N/A
 * 15.2
 * 1
 * 6.8
 * 0
 * 3
 * align="left"|Kirkcaldy Central
 * 37.9
 * 1
 * bgcolor="#eea2ad"|41.6
 * bgcolor="#eea2ad"|2
 * 2.5
 * 0
 * 13.6
 * 0
 * 4.4
 * 0
 * 3
 * align="left"|Kirkcaldy East
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|40.3
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|2
 * 39.7
 * 1
 * 2.9
 * 0
 * 11.7
 * 0
 * 5.3
 * 0
 * 3
 * align="left"|Glenrothes West and Kinglassie
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|49.5
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|2
 * 32.5
 * 1
 * 3.8
 * 0
 * 11.6
 * 0
 * 2.6
 * 0
 * 3
 * align="left"|Glenrothes North, Leslie and Markinch
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|44.6
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|2
 * 26.4
 * 1
 * 5.1
 * 0
 * 18.6
 * 1
 * 5.3
 * 0
 * 4
 * align="left"|Glenrothes Central and Thornton
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|48.7
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|2
 * 27.9
 * 1
 * 3.9
 * 0
 * 12.1
 * 0
 * 7.4
 * 0
 * 3
 * align="left"|Howe of Fife and Tay Coast
 * 31.0
 * 1
 * colspan="2" N/A
 * bgcolor="#ffa500"|44.9
 * bgcolor="#ffa500"|2
 * 14.6
 * 0
 * 9.5
 * 0
 * 3
 * align="left"|Tay Bridgehead
 * 28.4
 * 1
 * 4.3
 * 0
 * bgcolor="#ffa500"|48.2
 * bgcolor="#ffa500"|2
 * 8.4
 * 0
 * 10.7
 * 0
 * 3
 * align="left"|St Andrews
 * 22.2
 * 1
 * 8.4
 * 0
 * bgcolor="#ffa500"|48.1
 * bgcolor="#ffa500"|2
 * 14.7
 * 1
 * 6.6
 * 0
 * 4
 * align="left"|East Neuk and Landward
 * 25.1
 * 1
 * 2.6
 * 0
 * bgcolor="#ffa500"|45.8
 * bgcolor="#ffa500"|2
 * 13.2
 * 0
 * 14.2
 * 0
 * 3
 * align="left"|Cupar
 * 25.8
 * 1
 * 3.4
 * 0
 * bgcolor="#ffa500"|52.4
 * bgcolor="#ffa500"|2
 * 11.5
 * 0
 * 7.0
 * 0
 * 3
 * align="left"|Leven, Kennoway and Largo
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|42.4
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|2
 * 24.7
 * 1
 * 19.3
 * 1
 * 10.4
 * 0
 * 4.5
 * 0
 * 4
 * align="left"|Buckhaven, Methil and Wemyss Villages
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|47.4
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|2
 * 40.8
 * 2
 * 2.3
 * 0
 * 6.5
 * 0
 * 3.5
 * 0
 * 4
 * - class="unsortable" class="sortbottom"
 * 1
 * 19.3
 * 1
 * 10.4
 * 0
 * 4.5
 * 0
 * 4
 * align="left"|Buckhaven, Methil and Wemyss Villages
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|47.4
 * bgcolor="#efe146"|2
 * 40.8
 * 2
 * 2.3
 * 0
 * 6.5
 * 0
 * 3.5
 * 0
 * 4
 * - class="unsortable" class="sortbottom"
 * - class="unsortable" class="sortbottom"
 * }

Source:

Seats changing hands
Below is a list of seats which elected a different party or parties from 2017 in order to highlight the change in political composition of the council from the previous election. The list does not include defeated incumbents who resigned or defected from their party and subsequently failed re-election while the party held the seat.


 * Notes

Source:

West Fife and Coastal Villages
Labour, the SNP and the Conservatives retained the seats they had won at the previous election.

Dunfermline North
Labour, the SNP and the Conservatives retained the seats they had won at the previous election.

Dunfermline Central
Labour retained one of the two seats they had won at the previous election while the SNP and Conservatives retained their seats and the Liberal Democrats gained one seat from Labour.

Dunfermline South
The Liberal Democrats, Labour and the SNP retained the seats they had won at the previous election while the SNP also gained one seat from the Conservatives.

Rosyth
The SNP and Labour retained the seats they had won at the previous election while the SNP also gained one seat from the Conservatives.

Inverkeithing and Dalgety Bay
The SNP (2), Labour (1) and the Conservatives (1) retained the seats they had won at the previous election.

Cowdenbeath
The SNP and the Conservatives retained the seats they had won at the previous election while Labour retained one of their two seats and the SNP gained one seat from Labour.

Lochgelly, Cardenden and Benarty
The SNP (2) and Labour (2) retained the seats they had won at the previous election.

Burntisland, Kinghorn and Western Kirkcaldy
The SNP, Labour and the Conservatives retained the seats they had won at the previous election.

Kirkcaldy North
The SNP retained the seat they had won at the previous election while Labour held one of their two seats and the Conservatives gained one seat from Labour.

Kirkcaldy Central
Labour (2) and the SNP (1) retained the seats they had won at the previous election.

Kirkcaldy East
The SNP and Labour retained the seats they had won at the previous election while the SNP also gained one seat from the Conservatives.

Glenrothes West and Kinglassie
The SNP (2) and Labour (1) retained the seats they had won at the previous election.

Glenrothes North, Leslie and Markinch
The SNP (2), Labour (1) and the Conservatives (1) retained the seats they had won at the previous election.

Glenrothes Central and Thornton
The SNP (2) and Labour (1) retained the seats they had won at the previous election.

Howe of Fife and Tay Coast
The Liberal Democrats and the SNP retained the seats they had won at the previous election while the Liberal Democrats also gained one seat from the Conservatives.

Tay Bridgehead
The Liberal Democrats (2) and the SNP (1) retained the seats they had won at the previous election.

St Andrews
The Liberal Democrats, the SNP and the Conservatives retained the seats they had won at the previous election while the Liberal Democrats also gained one seat from Labour.

East Neuk and Landward
The Liberal Democrats and the SNP retained the seats they had won at the previous election while the Liberal Democrats also gained one seat from the Conservatives. Independent candidates Linda Holt and John Docherty were elected as Liberal Democrat and SNP candidates respectively in 2017.

Cupar
The Liberal Democrats and the SNP retained the seats they had won at the previous election while the Liberal Democrats also gained one seat from the Conservatives.

Leven, Kennoway and Largo
The SNP (2) and Labour (1) retained the seats they had won at the previous election while the Liberal Democrats gained one seat from the Conservatives.

Buckhaven, Methil and Wemyss Villages
The SNP (2) and Labour (2) retained the seats they had won at the previous election.

Aftermath
On 19 May 2022, a Labour-minority council was backed by 41 votes to 34, with Liberal Democrat and Conservative councillors voting for it. Labour denied forming a coalition with either the Lib Dems or the Conservatives but said they would need the support of others in the council to provide an effective administration. A social media post put out by the local authority explaining how the three Unionist parties had voted together was later edited to remove any reference to different parties. SNP group leader, Councillor David Alexander said that this outcome was "trampling on democracy" and said there was "no coherent defence for this gerrymandered motion" given that the SNP had won the most seats. Labour group leader Cllr David Ross was elected as council leader having previously been co-leader with Cllr Alexander prior to the election and Cllr Jim Leishman was re-elected as Provost.

In June 2024, Burntisland, Kinghorn and Western Kirkcaldy Labour councillor Julie MacDougall resigned from the party in protest over the way the party had selected candidates for the 2024 United Kingdom general election which she said was "blocking good local people" from standing.