Monday, 30 June 2025

Quarter Two Council By-Election Results 2025

This quarter 297,521 votes were cast in 149 local authority contests. All percentages are rounded to the nearest single decimal place. 82 council seats changed hands. For comparison you can view Quarter One's results here.

Party
Number of Candidates
Total Vote
%
+/- Q1
+/- Q2 2024
Avge/
Contest
+/-
Seats
Conservative
         147
53,525
    18.0%
   -4.1
      -9.2
   364
    -6
Labour
         145
50,735
    17.1%
   -4.8
    -16.4
   350
   -46
Lib Dem
         123
62,894
    21.1%
  +3.3
     +2.7
   511
   +6
Reform*
         130
74,022
    24.9%
  +8.2
   +24.3
   569
  +49
Green
         120
31,785
    10.7%
  +3.1
     +0.5
   265
   +6
SNP**
           5
 3,578
     1.2%
   -5.4
      -0.7
   716
     0
PC***
           4
  890
     0.3%
   -0.1
     +0.2
   223
     0
Ind****
          70
14,951
     5.0%
   -0.6
      -0.9
   214
    -6
Other*****
          43
 5,143
     1.7%
  +0.5
      -1.8
   120
    -3


* Reform's comparison results for 2024 are based on recomputing their tallies in Others over the respective quarter
** There were five by-elections in Scotland
*** There were four by-elections in Wales
**** There were nine Independent clashes
***** Others this quarter consisted of Alba (91, 47), Blue (11), Britain First (22), Christian People's Alliance (24, 23), Communist League (8), Gwlad (9), Heritage (44, 16), Homeland (26), Jago (7), Liberal (16), Oxted Residents (890), Patria (7, 7), Rejoin EU (65), Scottish Family Party (34, 25), Scottish Libertarian Party (25), Social Justice Party (118), Tattenham's Residents (2,084), Tunbrudge Wells Alliance (416, 62), TUSC (91, 91, 62, 47, 43, 39, 35, 34, 30, 25, 23, 17, 10), UKIP (21, 15, 14, 10, 5), Workers Party (398), Yorkshire Party (58)

Well done the Labour Party. Under Keir Starmer's leadership, never - not even the Tories at their very worst, and certainly not Labour under Jeremy Corbyn - has one of the main parties of government performed as abysmally in the quarter's round up as this. The vote has sunk well below the Liberal Democrats, and the seat loss, which is supposed to matter the most, is laughably bad. Labour chose to hollow out its vote prior to last year's general election, and in office they've carried on in this vein. The base is corroding, and it's because the party has showered its support in an acid rain of policy. Local council by-elections don't really matter in the grand scheme of things, but they are weather vanes and they are showing the crisis in Labour's support is real.

Not that the Tories can feel smug. Their pitched decline isn't as dramatic as Labour's because they were already at rock bottom. But as they're finding out, it can get worse. They can be completely buried, As noted yesterday, Labour can - in theory - turn their ship around. But no such luxury is available for the Conservative Party. The doom is upon them and this time it's hard to see how they might throw it off, unless they merge with Reform and let Nigel Farage take over.

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