Quarter Four Council By-Elections 2021

This quarter 115,832 votes were cast over 87 local authority 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  21	+/- Q4 2019	Average	+/- Seats
Conservative	86	36,341	31.4%	-2.9	-7.3	423	-10
Labour	77	31,204	26.9%	+2.7	-2.7	405	+4
LibDem	57	22,426	19.4%	+2.7	+5.2	393	+6
Green	48	10,247	8.8%	-2.0	+2.0	213	+4
SNP*	3	3,055	2.6%	-2.5	-0.8	1,018	+2
PC**	4	674	0.6%	+0.6	-0.1	169	0
Ind***	38	9,234	8.0%	+2.9	+2.8	243	-4
Other****	20	2,671	2.3%	-0.6	+0.9	134	-2

* There were three by-elections in Scotland
** There were five by-elections in Wales
*** There were six independent clashes
**** Others this month consisted of Basildon Community Residents Party (135), Bolton for Change (99), Communist Party of Britain (28), Liberal Party (202), Reform UK (6, 98), Rotherham Democratic Party (15, 6), Tunbridge Wells Alliance (788), TUSC (24, 76, 54, 84, 32),  Whitnash Residents' Association (835), Women's Equality Party (56), Workers Party of Britain (58, 10), Yorkshire Party (35, 20)

Another two-thirds/one-third set of results. Everything was ticking over quite nicely until the end of November and then the catastrophe of Boris Johnson's parties. The doom now appears upon the Tories, and this quarter finds them posting their largest net loss of councillors since the second quarter of 2016. We'll see if it can go lower. However, it's concerning that Labour's vote seems persistently depressed. This doesn't matter too much if the party is winning seats again, which it is, but it has to a better job of turning out its support for these contests if it's going to lay the ground for winning big later. But one thing Labour is now having to deal with are the resurgent Liberal Democrats and the rising Greens. Again, not too concerning if they're disproportionately cleaving into the Tories but could become bigger problems for Labour if left unchecked.

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