By-Election Results September 2013

Party	Number of Candidates	Total Vote	%	+/- August	Average/ contest	+/- August	+/- Seats
Conservative	30	11,123	32.6%	+5.8%	371	-40	nc
Labour	25	9,688	28.4%	-6.9%	387	-185	nc
LibDem	18	3,206	9.4%	+1.1%	178	-12	-2
UKIP	28	7,261	21.3%	+3.2%	259	-98	+3
SNP*
Plaid Cymru**
Green	10	1,140	3.3%	+2.2%	114	+45	+1
BNP	1	120	0.4%	+0.4%	120	+120	nc
TUSC
Independent***	9	1,381	4.1%	+0.6%	153	+16	-1
Other****	3	176	0.5%	-2.1%	59	-84	-1

* There were no by-elections in Scotland.
** There were no by-elections in Wales.
*** There was only one independent clash consisting of two candidates in a single contest.
**** 'Other' this month consisted of National Front (16 votes), English Democrats (78 votes) and Tendring First (82 votes)

Overall, 34,095 votes were cast over 30 individual local (tier one and tier two) authority contests. All percentages are rounded to the nearest single decimal place. For comparison see August's results here.

Ostensibly, this was a poor month for Labour. It won a single councillor, and lost another while holding out in a large number of seats. It also demonstrates that despite being a larger party than the Tories (and for that matter, UKIP), the fewer number of candidates may suggest membership is more concentrated and less widespread than either of these two organisations - an observation that has more than a few anecdotes to back it up. And yet, despite this, the average vote per contest remains marginally higher than the Conservatives and well ahead of UKIP's. Yet there's no denying Farage's one man band can pull in the numbers and win elections outside of European contests. They're now hitting the sort of votes the LibDems can only dream of.

Once again, these monthly results come with a large caveat: the places by-elections take place vary enormously from month-to-month. Such differences of location are more likely to be balanced out over a larger time frame and a more accurate picture of (possible) voting intention could emerge.