Quarter Four Local By-Election Results

Overall, 109,066 votes were cast over 55 local authority (tier one and tier two) contests. All percentages are rounded to the nearest single decimal place. For comparison you can view Quarter Three's results here.

Party	Number of Candidates	Total Vote	%	+/-  Q3	+/- Q4 2017	Average	+/- Seats
Conservative	54	35,358	32.4%	-2.0%	+0.0%	655	-2
Labour	51	34,292	31.4%	+0.7%	-3.3%	672	-1
LibDem	47	21,769	20.0%	+2.8%	+1.8%	463	+1
UKIP	17	1,911	1.8%	+0.6%	-0.8%	112	-1
Green	30	4,838	4.4%	+0.0%	+1.2%	161	0
SNP*	3	3,685	3.4%	+1.4%	+0.2%	1,228	+1
PC	0						0
Ind***	23	6,192	5.7%	-1.0%	+1.3%	269	+2
Other****	11	1,921	1.8%	-0.5%	+0.9%	175	0

* There were three by-elections in Scotland
** There were no by-elections in Wales
*** There were two Independent clashes
**** Others this quarter consisted of Yorkshire Party (108), Women's Equality Party (84), Christian People's Alliance (30), Harlow Alliance Party (99, 63) NFPP (223), Women's Equality Party (79), Stratford First (345), Scottish Libertarian (8), Ashfield Independents (856), Democrats and Veterans (26)

Another quarter, another set of by-elections that say little about the state of British politics. The Tories win the popular vote by virtue of scraping together more candidates than everyone else (a remarkable achievement now they're falling to bits), but in reality there's a cigarette paper between their results. The LibDems continue to poll well, but the days of their commanding a fifth of the vote in an actual general election are a long way off. And, happily, UKIP do worse than they did this time last year. No complaints here if 2019 finishes them off for good.

Well, politics is going to be even more of a biggie in 2019, so who knows how durable the results we see above will prove to be.