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.