Local Council By-Elections April 2026

This month saw 22,173 votes cast in 10 local authority contests. All percentages are rounded to the nearest single decimal place. Eight council seats changed hands. For comparison with March's results, see here.

Party	Number of Candidates	Total Vote	%	+/- Mar	+/- Apr 25	Avge/ Contest	+/- Seats
Conservative	10	3,701	16.7%	-3.7	+3.6	370	-1
Labour	9	2,483	11.2%	-0.7	-8.4	276	-2
Lib Dem	9	2,156	9.7%	-8.2	-11.2	240	0
Reform	10	7,603	34.2%	+4.6	+14.5	760	+2
Green	10	5,510	24.9%	+9.5	+11.6	551	+2
SNP*	0						0
PC**	0						0
Ind***	5	499	2.3%	-2.3	-0.2	100	-1
Other****	2	221	1.0%	+1.0	+0.5	111	0

* There were no by-elections in Scotland
** There were no by-election in Wales
*** There were no Independent clashes
**** Others in April consisted of Advance UK (28), Together for Bury (193)

Another month of firsts. The highest, if memory serves, vote tally enjoyed by Reform. The same also applies to the Greens. Who says Duverger's Law is dead? It's alive and well and working its way though council by-elections.

Okay, that's pushing it but for both parties these strong by-election results suggest favourable results after polls close for the devolved and local council polls next Thursday. People who are anticipating them with some dread are the Conservatives and Labour. 17% is about standard for the Tories these days. Abysmal. And, between the 11-12% mark for Labour is increasingly common. Catastrophic. The party only has itself to blame. The indicators have been there for a long time. The nature of Labour's coalition was obvious following the 2017 election, and here we are instead. Worthy of note also is the pretty poor result for the Liberal Democrats - I can't remember the last time their total dipped below 10%. It's likely to be a quirk of who was up and when in this clutch of by-elections, but as they have been displaced by the Greens in most polls, their gradual displacement/replacement by them cannot be ruled out.

May sees quite a few by-elections scheduled for polling day, so it's going to be a busy month with plenty of movement.

2 April
Bury, Tottington, Ref gain from Con
Luton, Wigmore, Ref gain from LDem
North Devon, Fremington, LDem gain from Ind
Rossendale, Hareholme & Waterfoot, Grn gain from Lab

9 April
Kent, Cliftonville, Grn gain from Ref

16 April
Leicestershire, Narborough & Whetstone, Ref hold
Northumberland, Cramlington South West, Con gain from Ref

22 April
Salford, Barton and Winton, Ref gain from Lab

23 April
Cornwall, Newquay Porth & Tretherras, Ref hold

30 April
Malvern Hills, Tenbury, Ref gain from Con

Image Credit

Five Most Popular Posts in April

Cor blimey, with the blink of an eye April is gone and with it a third of the year. How cruel it is that time passes faster the older you get! This, however, is not an occasion to opine the mortality of the human condition but to quickly report on what did the busines on this blog.

1. On Trashing MPs
2. Trump is Not Senile
3. Bureaucratic Theatre
4. "A Whole Civilisation Will Die Tonight"
5. The Consequences of Defeat

In at one is Hannah Spencer upsetting MPs after reporting back on her initial impressions of Westminster life. Which has since been reinforced after she made the daring, radical suggestion that bars on the parliamentary estate are probably not a good idea. How precious our representatives are. In at two was the taking apart of the persistent centrist meme that Trump is how he is because of progressing senility. Some people will do anything and everything to avoid stating the real state of affairs - that his administration is a simon pure manifestation of oligarchical class interests. At three we return to British politics with Keir Starmer's dodging of political responsibility for appointing Peter Mandelson, and getting the story tied up in tedious issues of bureaucratic process. At four was Trump's declaration of his intention to commit major war crimes in Iran, and lastly the outcome of Tehran having seen down US threats. Which, unfortunately, are now back on the table.

Because it's been a weighty month news-wise, the second chance saloon is frequented by Wednesday's post on DG Compton's novel, Ascendancies.

Looking forward to May, I'm not making any promises. The writing mojo remains very depressed, but some words will appear. There will be devolved and local election results to dissect, more Trump nonsense, and the warp and weft of everyday politics to untangle.

Image Credit