2023 Bracknell Forest Borough Council election

The council had been controlled by the Conservative Party since the unitary authority was created in 1998. The predecessor district council was controlled by the Conservatives, save for an initial period from 1973 to 1976 and later 1995 to 1997 when it was controlled by the Labour Party.

Paul Bettison was the Leader of the Council since 1997, having been elected leader of the Conservative group in 1996.^[2] Mary Temperton has been leader of the Labour group since 2011.^[3] Thomas Parker, the lone Liberal Democrat, announced he would not stand for re-election, having been first elected in 2019.

Pre-Election Composition

The Conservatives nominated a full slate of 41 candidates, whilst Labour only put forward 24, the Liberal Democrats 12, and the Greens 7. However, in none of these contests were Labour and the Liberal Democrats standing against each other, and likewise between the Liberal Democrats and the Greens - in only 2 of the 15 wards were Labour and the Greens opposing each other. This was a significant reversal from 2019, when Labour put up a full slate, and led to accusations that an arrangement had been reached between the three parties as a form of progressive alliance^[4][5] - a fact denied by the local Labour and Liberal Democrats.^[5] Reform UK and the Heritage Party also stood 1 candidate each in Harmans Water & Crown Wood - their first entry at a Bracknell Forest election. Finally, two independents stood - one in Town Centre & The Parks and another in Whitegrove.

Soon after nominations closed, controversy emerged over the selection of one of the Conservative candidates for Bracknell Town Council on Priestwood ward, Andrew McBride. McBride was a former regional organiser of the far-right British National Party, having also stood as a BNP candidate for Priestwood & Garth at the 2007 election, as well as a former deputy leader of the far-right Britain First.^[6] The Bracknell Conservative Association subsequently suspended his membership and disavowed his candidacy - however, it was legally too late to withdraw McBride from the election, so he appeared on the ballot as a Conservative candidate.^[7] The association indicated it would deny him the Conservative whip should he be elected.^[7] Outgoing Conservative cabinet member, Marc Brunel-Walker, announced on 12 April that he had submitted a motion of no-confidence in the association's officers over its selection of McBride in the first place.^[8]

11 incumbent councillors (10 of them Conservative) announced they would be standing down.^[9]

Binfield North & Warfield West

Binfield South & Jennett’s Park

Bullbrook

Crowthorne

Easthampstead & Wildridings

Great Hollands

Hanworth

Harmans Water & Crown Wood

Owlsmoor & College Town

Priestwood & Garth

Sandhurst

Swinley Forest

Town Centre & The Parks

Whitegrove

Winkfield & Warfield East

The Labour takeover was considered one of the shocks of the 2023 United Kingdom local elections,^[10][11] with many pundits ascribing the defeat in part to the theorised deal between Labour and the Liberal Democrats - outgoing leader Paul Bettison himself identified this and the woes of the Conservative government nationally as the reasons for his party's defeat.^[12] Mary Temperton, the Labour Party group leader, continued to deny such a pact existed,^[13] but nevertheless the result fuelled calls for a progressive alliance.