May 2021 in United Kingdom, Politics and Government

• 2 May
  • Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab tells the BBC that Iran's treatment of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe "amounts to torture", as diplomatic efforts to free the 42-year-old Briton continue.^[163]
  • A football match between Manchester United and Liverpool is postponed, after hundreds of fans break into the Old Trafford stadium to protest against the Glazer family's ownership of the club.^[164]
• 3 May
  • The 2021 World Snooker Championship concludes with Mark Selby defeating Shaun Murphy 18–15 in the final to win his fourth world title.^[165]
• 6 May
  

  Ballot papers for 6 May elections. These ballots were for elections open to a voter in Coventry.
  • The BBC reports that almost all 50 of the UK's biggest employers do not plan to return staff to the office full-time, but will instead favour a new "hybrid" of in-person and remote work.^[166]
  • A protest over post-Brexit rights by French fishermen at Saint Helier, Jersey, is brought to an end, following talks to resolve the dispute. Two Royal Navy patrol vessels remain in place around the island.^[167]
  • A series of elections take place for local councils and directly elected mayors in England and police and crime commissioners in England and Wales.
  • Welsh Parliament election: Labour keep hold of the Senedd and match the party's best ever result, with 30 out of 60 seats.
  • Scottish Parliament election: The SNP wins 64 seats out of 129. With the SNP and Scottish Greens both gaining seats, pro-independence parties have an increased majority in the Parliament.
  • London mayoral election: Sadiq Khan wins a second term, but with a reduced vote share.
  • 2021 Hartlepool by-election: Jill Mortimer becomes the constituency's first Conservative MP since 1974, marking a significant defeat for Labour.
• 8 May – Angela Rayner is removed from her roles as the Labour Party's chair and national campaign coordinator by Keir Starmer, following the local election results.^[168]
• 9 May – Prince Michael of Kent is accused of using his royal status to sell access to Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime, following an investigation by Channel 4 News and The Sunday Times. The Prince denies the allegations.^[169]
• 13 May – Airdrie and Shotts by-election: SNP retain the seat with an increased vote share.
• 14 May – COVID-19 in the UK: Boris Johnson and Chris Whitty provide an update on the Indian variant, warning that its spread in the UK could potentially delay the government's planned easing of lockdown restrictions on 21 June.^[170]
• 15 May
  • The final Debenhams store is closed, after more than 240 years in business. The company continues to trade online.^[171]
  • Leicester City wins the FA Cup for the first time, defeating Chelsea 1–0 in the final at Wembley.^[172] 21,000 supporters watched the game in the stadium, the most at any English professional match since March 2020.^[172]
  • COVID-19 in the UK: The number of people having received their second dose of a vaccine exceeds 20 million.^[173]
• 17 May – Stage three of the government's conditional lockdown easing goes ahead, enabling larger numbers of people to gather together, including at indoor venues.^[174]
• 20 May
  • COVID-19 in the UK: The vaccine rollout opens to those aged 34 and 35 in England.^[175]
  • The BBC publishes Lord Dyson's independent investigation into the circumstances around the 1995 Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales. The inquiry finds Martin Bashir guilty of deceit and breaching editorial conduct to obtain the interview.^[176]
• 22 May
  • COVID-19 in the UK: The vaccine rollout opens to those aged 32 and 33 in England.^[177]
  • COVID-19 in the UK: The total number of vaccines administered in England exceeds 50 million.^[178]
  • The UK scores zero points in the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest with James Newman's entry 'Embers', marking the first time the contest has seen an entry that did not score any points since the new voting system was introduced in 2016.^[179]
• 26 May
  • COVID-19 in the UK: The vaccine rollout opens to those aged 30 and 31 in England.^[180]
  • Dominic Cummings, former chief adviser to Johnson, provides evidence to a joint session of the Commons Health, Science and Technology committees. He makes a series of allegations regarding the Government's handling of the pandemic.^[181][182]
  • COVID-19 in the UK: The number of new daily confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the UK is reported as 3,180, the highest figure since 12 April.^[183]
  • Lubov Chernukhin, wife of Vladimir Chernukhin, a former Russian Finance Minister, donates £10,000 to Brandon Lewis MP of the Conservative Party.^[74]
• 27 May – A self-driving bus begins trials in Cambridge, the first service of its kind, running autonomously for 24 hours a day.^[184]
• 28 May
  • COVID-19 in the UK: A fourth vaccine, and the first requiring only a single jab, is approved for use. Made by US pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, it has an efficacy of 66% in preventing moderate-to-severe COVID-19, 85% efficacy in preventing severe disease, and 100% efficacy against hospitalisation and death.^[185]
  • 2019 London Bridge stabbing: A jury rules that failings by MI5 and the police contributed to the deaths of Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt, two young graduates who were unlawfully killed by a convicted terrorist.^[186]
• 31 May
  • COVID-19 in the UK: In an interview with BBC Radio 4, Professor Ravi Gupta from the University of Cambridge warns that the UK is entering a third wave of coronavirus infections, fuelled by the Indian variant, and that the ending of lockdown restrictions on 21 June should be postponed.^[187]
  • The UK experiences its hottest day of the year so far, with temperatures of almost 25 °C