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%
|
-0.9
|
214
|
-6
| |
Other*****
|
43
|
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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2 comments:
When Andy Burnham is urging rebellion from the left the world is coming to something. I know you haven't been feeling at your best Phil but some acerbic attacks from you would be most welcome.
One obvious thing to be grateful for is that they have done this quite so fast. It's almost like the leadership have been conspiring against themselves - actively trying to hole their own hull below the waterline, in order that their replacements might have more room to manoeuvre.
(Sure, for speedrunning self destruction they're not challenging Lizzie T's Iceberg crown! But considering a hypothetical scenario in which they didn't want to take the whole Party down with them, a tad more subtlety might have been called for...)
Far too optimistic to expect that they might make way for a decent government, though. Having only recently - and in the nick of time from a political cycle perspective - clawed the party back from the unacceptable clutches of Corbynism, the moribund neoliberal-friends-of-Israel can't possibly cede control again so soon. They have to cling grimly on until they are forcibly removed.
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