Local Council By-Elections January 2019

This month saw 7,650 votes cast over four local authority (tier one and tier two) contests. All percentages are rounded to the nearest single decimal place. No council seats changed hands. For comparison with December's results, see here.

Party	Number of Candidates	Total Vote	%	+/-  Dec	+/- Jan 18	Average/ Contest	+/- Seats
Conservative	3	2,791	36.5%	+12.9%	-13.1%	930	0
Labour	3	316	4.1%	-26.1%	-23.5%	105	0
LibDem	2	1,251	16.4%	-2.1%	-2.1%	626	0
UKIP	3	315	4.1%	+1.1%	+3.2%	105	0
Green	1	107	1.4%	- 3.7%	-2.0%	107	0
SNP	0						0
PC**	0						0
Ind***	7	2,870	37.5%	+27.2%	+34.2%	410	0
Other****	1	0	0.0%	-3.1%	+0.0%	0	0

* There were no by-elections in Scotland
** There were no by-elections in Wales
*** There was one Independent clash this month
**** Others this month consisted of the SDP (0 votes)

January is usually the worst month for by-elections. No one wants to go campaigning in the cold, and people can't be arsed after Christmas. What this usually translates into are, um, anomalous results. In all the years I've been covering by-elections, this one truly has broken the laws of political physics.

Look, the low number of contests explain the weirdness, so don't go reading anything into them. Don't go reading anything into them. I mean, c'mon, when was the last time the Independents topped the poll? Labour got under five per cent? UKIP beating the Greens? Also, I was very pleased to see the SDP capitalise on the coup of recruiting Patrick O'Flynn from UKIP by polling the grand total of zero votes in the City of London by-election. Probably the best result ever.

Thankfully more or less normal service returns in February, so these abominable results can get buried in a lead-lined box and forgotten.


10th January
East Sussex CC, Bexhill East Ind hold
Rother DC, Bexhill St Mark's Ind hold

31st January
City of London, Billingsgate Ind hold
Surrey CC, Warlingham Con hold