Local Council By-Elections December 2015

Party	Number of Candidates	Total Vote	%	+/-  Nov	Average/ contest	+/-  Nov	+/- Seats
Conservative	20	8,464	33.3%	+12.5%	423	+31	0
Labour	18	7,228	28.5%	+10.2%	402	+57	0
LibDem	15	3,279	12.9%	-2.1%	219	-146	+1
UKIP	15	2,333	9.2%	+4.7%	156	+29	-1
Green	9	579	2.3%	-1.8%	64	-52	0
SNP*	1	1,236	4.9%	-6.1%	1,236	+2	0
PC**	1	167	0.7%	-3.1%	167	-45	0
TUSC	0						0
Ind***	8	788	3.1%	-17.0%	99	-357	0
Other****	5	1,307	5.1%	+2.7%	261	+95	0

* There was one by-election in Scotland
** There was one by-election in Wales
*** There was only one Independent clash
**** Others this month consisted of Guildford Greenbelt Group (145), Scottish Socialist Party (122), Ind Health Concern (725), Liberal Party (283), Yorkshire First (32)

Overall, 25,381 votes were cast over 20 local authority (tier one and tier two) contests. All percentages are rounded to the nearest single decimal place. Three council seats changed hands in total. For comparison with November's results, see here.

Quite a busy month for a December, all told. The main story has to be the continued lag between Labour and the Tories, which is about the margin regularly given in the opinion polls. On this occasion it's worth noting that 14 of the contests were in Tory-held seats and only four in Labour's, and you expect that might add some distortion to the scores. It would still be nice for Labour to win a round of by-elections outright though.

UKIP may have lost a councillor to the LibDems, but December has seen them do much better than previously. Still firmly behind the yellow party, suggesting they're not out of the doldrums yet. Also the Greens are well down too. At this stage there's nothing to suggest this is anything but the usual month-to-month variance, but if it continues ... Anecdotally, we know many thousands of Greens have joined the Labour Party. Can the same be said for their voters?