Saturday 27 June 2015

Local Council By-Elections June 2015

Party
Number of Candidates
Total Vote
%
+/- May
Average/
contest
+/-
May
+/-
Seats
Conservative
15
 9,476
  32.1%
 -4.0%
    632
 -1,141
   +3
Labour
12
 7,062
  24.0%
 -8.6%
    589
    -895
    -1
LibDem
  7
 4,009
  13.6%
+5.1%
    573
      -17
    0
UKIP
15
 3,152
  10.7%
+1.5%
    210
    -544
    -2
Green
  9
 1,400
    4.7%
 -0.3%
    156
    -337
    0
SNP*
  0
 
   
 
  
    0
PC**
  0
   
   
  
  
   
    0
TUSC
  0
      
   
 
      
     
    0
Ind***
  4
 1,827
    6.2%
 +3.0%
     457
      -99
    0
Other****
  5
 2,620
    8.9%
 +8.2%
     524
   +115
    0

* There were no by-elections in Scotland
** There were no by-elections in Wales
*** There were no Independent clashes
**** Other this month included Independent Community and Health Concern (404, 378, 326), Tower Hamlets First (1,472), Something New (40)

Overall, 29,546 votes were cast over 17 local authority (tier one and tier two) contests. All percentages are rounded to the nearest single decimal place. A total of five council seats changed hands. For comparison see May's results here.

The dust has somehwat settled after the election and we see the Tories charge hugely into the lead. Annoyingly for Labour, despite now being the largest party with a smidgen under 250,000 members not only did the Tories out-organise it, but so did UKIP. Surely a priority for the next five years is to work so that no local by-election goes uncontested.

Speaking of UKIP, didn't they do not at all well? A proper besting by the LibDems on less than half the candidates. True, there were a couple of very strong results for the yellows - they even won a seat from UKIP, which is something of a first for them. Yet those polling averages for the purples are not at all good. This can't be put down to geography in my opinion as a broad range of seats were contested that you would think are okay for the kippers. We'll see over the coming months if this is a trend or a blip. But as we travel further from the election, and with a new leader at the helm I expect the liberals will start polling better, and it will mainly be UKIP and the Greens that are set to lose out.

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