The 2025 North Northamptonshire Council election took place on 1 May 2025 to elect members to 68 seats on North Northamptonshire Council in Northamptonshire, England. It was held on the same day as other local elections. The council was under Conservative control prior to the election. Reform UK won a majority of the seats at the election.
At the 2021 election, the Conservatives won a majority of seats. The Conservative leader of the council prior to the election, Jason Smithers, did not stand for re-election in 2025.
New ward boundaries were drawn up to take effect for the 2025 election, reducing the number of seats from 78 to 68.
Reform UK won a majority of the seats at the election. Their group leader, Martin Griffiths, was formally appointed as the new leader of the council at the subsequent annual council meeting on 20 May 2025. He had previously been a Conservative, and had been leader of one of the council's predecessors, the Borough Council of Wellingborough, for its last five years between 2016 and 2021.
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Election results
The election for Higham Ferrers ward was delayed due to the death of the Liberal Democrat candidate John Ratcliffe, and rescheduled to 12 June 2025. Following the re-closing of nominations, Reform UK stood three candidates in this seat despite the ward being two-member, as one of the candidates, Alan Beswick, had moved to China and could not complete the appropriate withdrawal form.
There was also an issue wherein the returning officer and the Electoral Commission had conflicting advice regarding the eligibility of one of the new Reform UK candidates, Elisa Perna. Perna had stood in the Oundle ward on 1 May 2025 and had not been elected, and she had then been nominated to the Higham Ferrers ward. The Electoral Commission stated that, as two candidates cannot stand in the same ward in a set of local elections, Perna was ineligible. However, the North Northamptonshire returning officer stated that she was eligible, as a new notice of election had been published. This raised the possibility of an election petition being launched following the result of the poll, which would end up in the High Court. The Electoral Commission's position was that under Schedule 2, Rule 12 of The Local Elections (Principal Areas) (England and Wales) Rules 2006 a candidate cannot stand in more than one electoral area, and that under the Section 39, Clause (5)(a) of the Representation of the People Act 1983, this rule also applies to any countermanded polls.
At the election on 12 June 2025, one Reform UK candidate and one Conservative Party candidate were elected.
Martin Griffiths, former leader of Wellingborough Borough Council, was elected as Reform UK group leader and therefore Leader of the Council. Helen Harrison, fiancée to former Wellingborough MP Peter Bone, was appointed as leader of the Conservative group.