Local Council By-Elections February 2022

This month saw 40,767 votes cast over 25 local authority contests. All percentages are rounded to the nearest single decimal place. Overall, 10 council seats changed hands. For comparison with January's results, see here.

Party	Number of Candidates	Total Vote	%	+/-  Jan	+/- Feb 20	Avge/ Contest	+/- Seats
Conservative	25	14,778	36.2%	-2.4	-2.3	591	0
Labour	22	8,216	20.2%	-10.8	-9.8	374	+2
LibDem	18	10,494	25.7%	+14.7	+10.2	583	+3
Green	13	3,006	7.4%	+0.4	+4.9	231	0
SNP*	0						0
PC**	0						0
Ind***	8	3,963	9.7%	+5.4	-2.9	495	-5
Other****	7	310	0.8%	+0.8	+0.7	44	0

* There were no by-elections in Scotland
** There were no by-elections in Wales
*** There was one Independent clash this month
**** Others in February consisted of For Britain (45), Freedom Alliance (28), Reform UK (64), SDP (12), TUSC (70, 22, 69)

After the excitement of December's elections, which saw the worst Tory performance in years, it looks like stabilisation is in the electoral air. Their vote has consolidated and national scandal, it seems, has not percolated downwards to the local scene. The Tories dropped seats to the Liberal Democrats and Labour, but balanced things out by taking one back from the yellow party and the Indies - who didn't have a good month at all.

Things didn't look good for Labour either, if you look only at the vote tally. Trailing third behind the LibDems is never a positive sign, but one must be fair in these situations. These seats were not good ground for Labour, and so those who care about such things must be chuffed it netted two seats in unfavourable circumstances. And the LibDems' winning ways are pretty standard now, which must be encouraging for that party's nerds as well. Also worthwhile noting is Thurston in Mid-Suffolk, which was a Green hold.

There are 19 seats up in March and, like this month, they don't look like particularly fertile grounds for Labour growth. But we'll see what the ballots deliver up.

3rd February
Cotswold, Campden and Vale, Con hold
Dacorum, Berkhamsted West, LDem hold
Dacorum, Boxmoor, LDem hold
Leicester, Evington, Lab hold
Manchester, Ancoats and Beswick, LDem gain from Lab
Tamworth, Spital, Con hold

10th February
Eastleigh, Eastleigh Central, LDem hold
Somerset West and Taunton, Alcombe, LDem gain from Ind
Wealden, Hailsham South, LDem gain from Con

17th February
Allerdale, Stainburn and Clifton, Lab gain from Ind
Bristol, Southmead, Lab hold
Mid Suffolk, Thurston, Grn hold
Newark and Sherwood, Collingham, Con gain from Ind
North East Lincolnshire, Park, Con hold
Nottinghamshire, Collingham, Ind hold
North Northamptonshire, Oundle, LDem gain from Con
Oadby and Wigston, Wigston Meadowcourt, Con gain from LDem
West Devon, Tavistock North, Con gain from Ind

23rd February
Spelthorne, Stanwell North, Lab gain from Con

24th February
Castle Point, St Peter's, Con hold
Durham, Ferryhill, Lab gain from Ind
Lincolnshire, Colsterworth Rural, Con hold
Maldon, Wickham Bishops and Woodham, Con hold
South Kesteven, Aveland, Con hold
South Kesteven, Isaac Newton, Con hold

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