This week, there were five principal council by-elections. All of this week’s contests were in England, stretching from Blackpool, where the Christmas season is marked by the glow of the famous Illuminations, down to the Cornish coast at Newquay, and across to the eastern edge of the country at Lowestoft.
We start on the south bank of the River Ribble in Penwortham. We held this seat, pushed our vote share up and left Reform a long way behind. With Preston just over the bridge, and with us as the official opposition there, this is an area where visible local work still cuts through, and the result made that clear. Congratulations are due to Councillor Clare Burton‑Johnson and the local team for keeping the seat firmly in our hands.
South Ribble Borough Council, Broad Oak
Liberal Democrats (Clare Burton‑Johnston): 810 (65.9%, +0.4)
Reform UK: 263 (21.4%, new)
Conservative: 95 (7.7%, -9.5)
Labour: 62 (5.0%, -12.2)
Liberal Democrats HOLD
Turnout: 35.29%
Staying in Lancashire, there was a by-election in Blackpool, with Reform comfortably taking the seat from Labour. Labour slipped to third place on the night, while Kev Benfold and the local team ensured the Liberal Democrat flag was still flying.
Blackpool Council, Greenlands
Reform UK: 587 (44.4%, +38.4)
Conservative: 299 (22.6%, -17.2)
Labour: 289 (21.9%, -22.7)
Green Party: 79 (6.0%, -2.5)
Liberal Democrats (Kev Benfold): 45 (3.4%, new)
Independent: 22 (1.7%, new)
Reform UK GAIN from Labour
Turnout: 24.7%
Our other defence this week was in Leicestershire, where we were unable to hold the seat and the Conservatives made their second gain in local by-elections from us this electoral cycle, both of them in this ward. The Greens moved into second place, with Marion Lewis finishing third after a sharp drop in vote share. Thank you to Marion and the local team for keeping the Liberal Democrat flag flying in a tough contest.
Harborough District Council, Market Harborough Logan
Conservative: 461 (34.7%, +5.8)
Green Party: 358 (26.9%, +18.8)
Liberal Democrats (Marion Lewis): 268 (20.2%, -29.6)
Reform UK: 195 (14.7%, new)
Labour: 43 (3.2%, -9.9)
SDP: 4 (0.3%, new)
Conservative GAIN from Liberal Democrats
Turnout: 30.5%
In Suffolk, the Conservatives lost the seat as Reform took a clear win on just under half the vote. The Greens moved into a distant second, while Chris Thomas and the local team kept the Liberal Democrat presence on the ballot in a difficult contest.
Suffolk County Council, Pakefield
Reform UK: 1,286 (49.2%, new)
Green Party: 508 (19.4%, +9.1)
Conservative: 357 (13.6%, -43.3)
Labour: 328 (12.5%, -13.6)
Liberal Democrats (Chris Thomas): 137 (5.2%, -1.5)
Reform UK GAIN from Conservative
Turnout: 22.6%
In Cornwall, Reform held the seat after a crowded contest, with Geoff Brown lifting the Liberal Democrat vote but finishing in third place. Congratulations to Geoff and the local team for keeping the Liberal Democrat presence strong in a competitive field.
Cornwall Council, St Columb Minor and Colan
Reform UK: 408 (31.7%, -4.2)
Independent: 325 (25.3%, new)
Liberal Democrats (Geoff Brown): 296 (23.0%, +14.6)
Green Party: 173 (13.4%, new)
Conservative: 73 (5.7%, -11.2)
Labour: 9 (0.7%, -7.8)
Independent: 3 (0.2%, new)
Reform UK HOLD
Turnout: 27.65%
With 190 local by‑elections fought since May, the Liberal Democrats head into the Christmas break as one of the few parties clearly moving forward. We held 86% of our 37 defences and added 24 gains from across the field, lifting the party to 56 wins, up 19 councillors since May. While Reform UK has been surging in many areas, the Lib Dems have been cutting into that advance too, taking seats directly off them and showing that their rise is not going unchallenged. In a year of volatile local results and heavy losses for the larger parties, the Liberal Democrats have been one of the most consistently advancing forces in local government.
With these the final principal authority by‑elections of the year, a huge thank you goes to every candidate, agent and campaign team who kept us in the fight week after week. A full breakdown of the results is available on the ALDC by‑elections page here. As we head into the festive season, we hope you get a Christmas free of door‑knocking, soggy leaflets and frantic GOTV chats, and instead enjoy good food, good company and a well‑earned breather before it all starts again in January.
* Liam Yip is the Campaigns and Communications Intern at ALDC
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14 Comments
What’s going amiss in Harborough this year. 2 seats lost in same Ward in 6 months.
The BBC report this as a Tory gain from independent so I guess the damage was done well before this byelection.
Greens showing something like their poll ratings.
I fear for May, they will outshine us, especially in London and grab the media attention.
@Peter Davies
We are in minority control of the District. The combined opposition could no confidence us out of that. Perhaps an East Midlander can through light on this?
If I was a Labour supporter in Cornwall I would be very disappointed in the St Columb result. Especially in a seat gained at the last election. Good result for us though even if we did not win this time.
@ Tim Rodgers “If I was a Labour supporter in Cornwall I would be very disappointed in the St Columb result”.
Sorry, Tim, but if you are a Lib Dem supporter you should be very disappointed, because as I understand it, St Column is in a Liberal Parliamentary seat held for many years by John Pardoe and Paul Tyler.
Tim; A Labour supporter anywhere would be disappointed with those figures from these elections. The hemorrhaging of that socially conservative vote they need to rely on must be concerning for Labour MPs.
There are many ways of measuring by-election performance. Looking at one week’s results in isolation covers too few elections to be meaningful and can vary wildly from week to week. Looking at all results since last May as Liam Yip and Mark Pack do includes too many results from many months ago which are of little relevance to what is happening now.
While no method is perfect my end of month summaries which include just the most recent fifty by-elections (essentially just the last couple of months) gives I think a more realistic picture of current trends. I also don’t include Scotland (different voting system and different politics).
After we recently (temporarily) pushed Reform into second place we have now slipped to third. Labour have slipped to fifth place for the first time.
Percentage Vote Share:
Reform UK 28.27%, Conservatives 19.25%, Liberal Democrats 18.65%, Greens 11.59%, Labour 11.22%, Others 11.02%
Gains and losses are:
Reform: Net gain of sixteen: 17 gains, 2 held, 1 lost
Lib Dems: Net gain of three: 6 gains, 7 held, 3 lost
Others: Net gain of one: 1 gain, 3 held, 0 lost
Greens: No change 2 gains, 1 held, 2 lost
Independents: Net loss of three: 3 gains, 0 held, 6 lost
Conservatives: Net loss of seven: 2 gains, 4 held, 9 lost
Labour: Net loss of ten: 0 gains, 2 held, 10 lost
Seats Won:
Reform 19, Liberal Democrats 13, Conservatives 6, Greens 3, Independents 3, Labour 2, Others 4
The above data is for the most recent 50 by-elections in England & Wales (23rd October to 18th December 2025). Parish/Town councils are not included.
From a purely neutral point of view, the result in Harborough is almost identical to the by-election in the same ward in July.
The Conservatives have gained slightly from their position in 2023 (the full council elections); Labour have lost votes substantially and the Lib Dems dramatically; the Greens have increased their vote significantly and Reform have also come from nowhere to take fourth place.
A lot of the this is due to local circumstances: note that the previous Lib Dem Councillor had resigned from the Party to sit as an independent shortly before giving up the seat.
Labour’s campaigning was tokenistic: both the Greens and Lib Dems fought hard, but ultimately were fighting each other for the same votes.
David Raw. FYI St Columb Minor and Colan( really the village of Quintrell Downs) is in the StAustell and Newquay seat. Their is a village called StColumb Major nearby in the Cornwall North constituency.
Time,
Thanks for the clarification. What is notable in all these by-election figures is the absolute collapse of Labour support, which indicates that they will have a disastrous result in May.
The Conservatives results are patchy; they are clearly on a downward spiral but in some cases they are winning seats from Labour (and may make gains in some wards in May) because they are not declining as fast as Labour is! Clearly there is a struggle between LibDems and Greens over who is syphoning up these ex-Labour votes, but our staff and parliamentarians should be thinking about our strategy in this regard.
Looking at the Blackpool result – the Greens and Libs have a long way to go to in some of the poorest areas in the UK …Both are looking at two to three hundred lost deposits at the next GE. You only need to look at the last GE lost deposits stats to see where they are irrelevant.
Local by-election results seem to be getting more coverage in the National press particularly because of the rise of Reform. They are also portrayed as indicators of the success or not of the political parties.
The Lib Dems have often done very well this year in seats where we are strong and particularly in those areas where we have MP’s. This has though not always been the case in places where we are less strong. It might be helpful if in England Regional Parties, with the help of ALDC, were more proactive in supporting their Local Parties in relation to always finding candidates and the running of campaigns.
Years of fanatical targeting have lead to the core vote dropping 2%sh. It’s ime for some serious efforts to establish activity in the neglected constituencies.