Who is in charge of the councils now?

Who is going to work with who?

That is the big question left outstanding after local elections on 7 May meant seven councils in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight were left in No Overall Control (NOC).

It meant no one party had enough councillors to declare themselves a winner and take over running the council.

Those left NOC were Hampshire County Council, Gosport Borough, Havant Borough, Southampton City, Basingstoke & Deane, Rushmoor, Hart and Isle of Wight.

Since the election, conversations have been held behind closed doors between different party leaders to work out how each council could be run.

Who wants to be in charge of a £3.3bn annual budget and provide services for 1.4 million people?

The council was previously run by the Conservatives. Although they remain the largest party (27 seats), the Liberal Democrats now have 26 seats and Reform UK have 20.

Speaking before the leadership vote on Thursday, Conservative group leader Nick Adams King said parties should "work together to create a stable administration".

He was opposed by Liberal Democrat leader Keith House who said it was clear the Conservatives lost at the election and said there should be a "Lib Dem-led council that listens to all".

In the event, Adams-King was elected with newly elected New Forest Reform councillors helping swing the vote his way.

He won 31 votes - 27 Conservative, three Reform and one independent.

House won 25 votes and there was 20 abstentions.

Members of the New Forest Together group which opposes local government reorganisation plans cheered in the public gallery when Adams King vowed to pursue a judicial review against it.

Strap in, this one is complicated!

An Independent Alliance group ran the council before the election but its leader, Phil Jordan, lost his seat.

In the interim, the deputy Andrew Garratt, who is leader of the Liberal Democrats group, has been acting up.

After the election, Reform became the largest party with 19 seats, but lacked a majority by one seat .

You might assume they would be looking to elect a leader at full council on 27 May.

When I contacted their leader, James Whelan, he said negotiations with other councillors were ongoing.

But it might not be that simple because, behind the scenes, conversations have also been taking between the second largest party - the Liberal Democrats - and others including Greens, Independents, Empowering Islander Independents and Labour.

If all the other elected councillors work together - they could prevent a Reform-led council.

The Conservative group leader Ed Blake said they had not been approached by any parties to take part in any deal.

Realistically, would the Conservatives support a left-leaning alliance or a Reform led council? I doubt it.

Labour lost control in Southampton. But they are still the largest party by far with 24 of the 51 councillors.

Their new group leader, who was previously cabinet number in charge of economic development, is Sarah Bogle.

She was elected leader of the council on Wednesday.

Opposition is more complicated as four other parties have similar numbers of councillors: Reform (8), Lib Dem (7), Green and Conservative (6 each).

They will all have representatives on various scrutiny committees and panels - designed to keep watch on the council's decisions.

Gosport, which was previously run by the Liberal Democrats, is also a bit of a mishmash.

After the election the two largest parties are the Conservatives (11 seats) and Reform (10 seats).

Zoe Huggins - the new leader of the Conservative group - was elected leader on Wednesday.

She said the party was "keen to offer stability for the public and staff" but ruled out a formal coalition with any other party.

The leader of the Reform group, Paul Carter, has said it was willing to "work alongside" the Conservatives but would focus on "opening up decision making and tightening control of council finances".

This was a NOC council before the elections. It was run by a coalition of Labour, Liberal Democrats, Greens and an Independent.

Remember, voters had only been offered one left-leaning choice in each ward in the election.

When the results came in, Reform were the largest party with 10 councillors.

Labour were on seven, Greens on six and Liberal Democrats on five, along with the Conservatives who also had five.

At Wednesday's council meeting Reform's Sharon Collings put herself forward as leader.

However other parties supported Labour's Gill Harris who was elected saying she was keen to "listen and bring consensus and collaboration, regardless of political differences".

Less change here, the Independents are still the largest group with 19 out of 54 seats.

They are in coalition with the Liberal Democrats who have 10 seats.

The leader will be officially decided on Thursday, but it is expected Paul Harvey will continue in the role.

The appointment of the leader takes place on Thursday.

In the election, the Liberal Democrats took one seat off the Conservatives - but they do not have enough seats for a majority.

The status quo is likely to remain - the Lib Dems running the council with support from Community Campaign Hart, who take some of the cabinet positions.

The AGM for Rushmoor is due to take place next week - but we are not expecting any massive changes.

Labour lost their majority, but are still the largest party and will hope to see their leader re-elected.

And of course most of these leaders will not be in power for long.

At the moment - judicial reviews pending - all the mainland Hampshire councils will be abolished in 2028.

Next May we will have elections to the new super unitaries and the previous county, districts and borough councillors will have a year of transition working alongside the new representatives.

Spoiler alert: some of the current councillors and leaders will likely seek election to the new councils.

And we thought this year's elections were complicated!