Is it déjà vu? Or are there six principal council by-elections again? What’s different this week is a majority of seats sees holds in lieu of changing hands. The Tories defended their two seats, while the Lib Dems and the independents held on to their own. It was, unsurprisingly, another bad night for the governing party in Westminster, as Labour saw a collapse in vote share across the board, barely holding on to one seat and losing the other to Reform.

Starting with the good news, it was a run-away win for Cllr Andy Waters in the Dodworth ward in Barnsley MBC. The vote for the Lib Dems held steady as we secured close to half of the electorate. Here we see the Labour vote over halved, dropping them down to third overall. Congratulations to Andy and the team for all the work put into winning the seat!

Barnsley MBC, Dodworth
Liberal Democrat (Andy Waters): 1029 (49.7%, -1.7%)
Reform: 503 (24.3%, new)
Labour: 334 (16.1%, -18.5%)
Conservative: 147 (7.1%, -6.9%)
Green Party: 57 (2.8%, new)

Similarly, Labour’s vote also plummeted in Featherstone, Wakefield DC, but managed to defend their seat. Here, Christopher Howden established themselves as the definitive opposition, hopping into second place despite the lack of Lib Dem presence in the ward last time around. Thank you and well done to Christopher and the local team for the effort, this sets us up well to winning here next election!

Wakefield DC, Featherstone
Labour: 893 (42.1%, -30.7%)
Liberal Democrat (Christopher Howden): 548 (25.9%, new)
Reform: 463 (21.8, new)
Conservative: 141 (6.7%, -8.8%)
Green Party: 74 (3.5%, -8.3%)

The other amazing performance by the Lib Dems comes from Ronan McCaughey in the Ottershaw ward in Runnymede BC. The independents, who used to hold all three seats in the ward before this by-election, won with over 40% of the votes. Despite such a strong presence, however, the Lib Dem vote tripled. Thank you to Ronan and the team for the astounding result, you’ll get them next time.

Runnymede BC, Ottershaw
Independent: 440 (41.6%, new)
Conservative: 221 (20.9%, -3.5%)
Liberal Democrat (Ronan McCaughey): 190 (18.0%, +12.1%)
Reform: 113 (10.7%, new)
Labour: 52 (4.9%, -12.5%)
Green Party: 42 (4.0%, -2.3%)

The two elections in Essex CC and Chelmsford City Council that were triggered by the unfortunate passing of a Conservative councillor saw Tories holds. Thank you to Christine Shaw for flying the Lib Dem flag in both the South Hanningfield, Stock, & Margaretting and Stock ward. 

Chelmsford City Council, South Hanningfield, Stock, & Margaretting
Conservative: 838 (81.3%, +7.8%)
Green Party: 72 (7.3%, new)
Liberal Democrat (Christine Shaw): 70 (6.8%, -9.5%)
Labour: 48 (4.7%, -5.6%)

Essex CC, Stock
Conservative: 1304 (46.4%, -23.1%)
Reform: 977 (34.7%, new)
Independent: 160 (5.7%, -2.1%)
Liberal Democrat (Christine Shaw): 156 (5.5%, -1.2%)
Labour: 127 (4.5%, -5.4%)
Green Party: 89 (3.2%, -2.9%)

For a full summary of these results, and all other principal council by-elections, please refer to the ALDC by-elections page here.

* Matthew Ma works in the Campaigns and Communications team at ALDC