Local Council By-Election Results 2015

Party	Number of candidates	Total vote	%	+/-  2014	Average/ contest	+/-  2014	+/- Seats
Conservative	236	202,496	31.0%	+1.9%	838	+358	+19
Labour	225	197,453	30.2%	+1.1%	878	+308	-6
LibDem	165	63,550	9.7%	-1.7%	385	+75	+1
UKIP	164	53,067	8.1%	-6.9%	324	-64	-11
Green	134	31,936	4.9%	+0.2%	238	+37	-2
SNP*	32	59,095	9.0%	+6.3%	1,847	+862	+4
Plaid Cymru**	22	7,657	1.2%	-0.7%	348	+147	0
TUSC	15	878	0.1%	-0.2%	59	+8	0
Independent***	84	27,529	4.2%	-1.6%	327	+30	-2
Other****	42	10,602	1.6%	+0.3%	252	+27	-3

* There were 34 by-elections in Scotland.
** There were 28 by-elections in Wales.
*** There were 13 Independent clashes in the year's by-elections.
****  See the quarterly round-ups for details of other parties.

Overall 654,263 votes were cast over 257 individual local authority (tier one and tier two) contests. Fractions are rounded to one decimal place for percentages, and the nearest whole number for averages. You can see 2014's results here.

Last year the polls were all over the place, but the trend was toward convergence and - unsurprisingly - as we know, convergence turned into a convincing lead for the Tories. The local election poll tally picked up that movement too. And this year? It's perhaps too early to tell in the quarter since Jeremy took over as Labour leader, but 12 months hence we'll know if - again - the trends here are matched by the polls and other elections.