Local Council By-Elections August 2014

Party	Number of Candidates	Total Vote	%	+/- July	Average/ contest	+/- July	+/- Seats
Conservative	9	2,528	27.1%	-2.2%	281	-160	+1
Labour	8	2,551	27.4%	+1.7%	319	-89	0
LibDem	7	1,732	18.6%	+7.5%	247	-11	-2
UKIP	7	1,685	18.1%	+2.8%	241	-30	+1
SNP*	0			-1.0%		-595	0
Plaid Cymru**	0			-0.4%		-228	0
Green	5	687	7.4%	+3.5%	137	+25	0
BNP	0			-0.1%		-58	0
TUSC	1	16	0.2%	+0.1%	16	+2	0
Independent***	2	127	1.4%	-5.9%	64	-179	0
Other****	0			-5.8%		-349	0

* There were no by-elections in Scotland.
** There were no by-elections in Wales.
*** There were no independent clashes.
**** No 'others' stood this time round.

Overall, 9,236 votes were cast over nine local authority (tier one and tier two) contests. All percentages are rounded to the nearest single decimal place. For comparison see July's results here.

A very quiet month to be sure. Who wants to fight by-elections in holiday season? But still interesting for all that.

First off some morale-boosting joy for the Liberal Democrats. 18.6% is a ridiculous vote for them these days and fully reflects the swings and roundabouts of local by-elections. Some months a disproportionate number of contests fall in seats not favourable to a particular party. In others they take place in super safe areas. Nevertheless, this month is the first time the LibDems have beaten UKIP to third overall in a very long time. An accident of geography? Yes, in all likelihood. The polls still consistently report poor figures for the yellow party. Whether this is a blip or not shall be answered in the fullness of time - though the fact they lost councillors to the Tories and UKIP might point more toward the former.

Apart from that, there is very little to talk about. After last month's walk-on bit part, the BNP have disappeared again. TUSC have stuck around and increased their average vote by 2 to a massive 16. Keep it up comrades.