Five principal authority by-elections took place across England and Wales on Thursday 22nd October.
Labour were defending two seats (in Leeds and Carmarthenshire), the Conservatives defended one in Wychavon, the Green Party defended one in East Hertfordshire, and an Independent defended one in South Kesteven.
It proved to be a productive night for the Conservatives, who held their seat in Worcestershire and secured three gains from three different parties – taking seats from the Greens in Hertfordshire, Labour in Leeds, and an Independent in Lincolnshire.
For the Liberal Democrats, it was an undeniably tough set of contests where our vote was squeezed in non-target territory and in a disappointing result in East Hertfordshire.
Elsewhere, Reform UK and the Greens continued to experience electoral friction amidst wider national controversies, while Labour’s night was mixed – losing two seats, but showing signs of vote share recovery in West Yorkshire compared to earlier this spring.
Leeds City Council, Calverley and Farsley – 22 October 2026
Over in West Yorkshire, the Conservatives gained the Calverley and Farsley ward on Leeds City Council from Labour in a contest triggered by the resignation of former Labour councillor Peter Carlill on health grounds.
Leeds is currently governed by a Labour minority administration after the party lost eight seats in the May 2026 local elections, leaving them on 48 of 99 seats. Calverley and Farsley is a three-member ward elected by thirds, where Labour had previously held two seats and the Conservatives one.
In a crowded field of seven candidates, Conservative candidate Amanda Carter took the seat with 40.2% of the vote. While technically a seat loss for Labour compared to their 2023 defence, their 36.8% vote share actually represented a 9.5-point rebound compared to their May 2026 local election showing in the ward. The Liberal Democrats have not historically had an active base in this part of Leeds, and candidate Stuart McLeod was squeezed by the intense two-party battle at the top of the ballot.
Thank you to Stuart McLeod for ensuring local residents had a Liberal Democrat choice on the ballot paper in a crowded contest!
Conservative: 2330 (40.2%, +4.8%)
Labour: 2134 (36.8%, -18%)
Reform UK: 693 (12%, new)
Green Party: 341 (5.9%, +2.4%)
Restore: 151 (2.6%, new)
Lib Dem (Stuart McLeod): 92 (1.6%, -1.3%)
Yorkshire Party: 57 (1%, -2.5%)
Turnout: 32.2%
Conservative GAIN from Labour
East Hertfordshire DC, Hertford Kingsmead – 22 October 2026
In Hertfordshire, the Conservatives gained a seat from the Green Party in the Hertford Kingsmead ward of East Hertfordshire District Council following a councillor resignation.
East Herts has been run by a joint Green-Liberal Democrat administration since the historic 2023 local elections, when the Conservatives lost 24 seats and their longstanding majority. In that election, the Greens surged to 19 seats, the Conservatives finished on 16, and the Liberal Democrats advanced to 10 seats, leaving the council under a delicately balanced leadership. The Greens had swept all three seats in Hertford Kingsmead in 2023 with a comfortable seven-point cushion over the Conservatives.
In Thursday’s by-election, the Conservatives took the seat by a narrow margin of 46 votes. The result reflects a continuing trend seen in recent weeks where the Green vote has softened in more rural and district councils, impacted by national controversies and perceptions that the party has pivoted toward hard-left politics over traditional local environmental priorities.
For the Liberal Democrats, this was an undeniably disappointing result, with our vote share falling to 6.7%. In a fiercely contested two-horse race between our coalition partners and the Conservatives, our vote was likely to be heavily squeezed, but unclear whether it was anti-Green electors tactically consolidating behind the Tories, progressive voters trying to stop a Conservative win, or both.
Thank you to Elif Lewis for flying the Liberal Democrat flag in a very tough, polarised contest!
Conservative: 575 (35.3%, +8.9%)
Green Party: 529 (32.4, -4.4%)
Reform UK: 253 (15.5%, new)
Labour: 164 (10.1%, -5.7%)
Lib Dem (Elif Lewis): 110 (6.7%, -14.3%)
Turnout: 24%
Conservative GAIN from Green Party
Carmarthenshire CC, Saron – 22 October 2026
In South Wales, Plaid Cymru gained the Saron division on Carmarthenshire County Council from Labour following the sad passing of sitting councillor Peter Cooper.
Plaid Cymru holds a narrow majority on Carmarthenshire Council with 38 seats, with Labour acting as the main opposition on 23 seats, while the Liberal Democrats hold no representation in the county. At the last regular election in 2022, Saron elected one Plaid Cymru and one Labour councillor with less than a percentage point between them. The Labour win was a gain from Plaid.
Thursday’s by-election saw Plaid Cymru comfortably reclaim the seat with 43.9% of the vote. The Labour vote collapsed by over 21 percentage points down to 17.6%, largely shifting to Reform UK who surged into second place with 28%—mirroring trends seen in the Senedd elections earlier this year where Reform and Plaid are largely squeezing Labour out.
Thank you to Caryl Tandy for putting a Liberal Democrat choice on the ballot paper in a tough Welsh contest!
Plaid Cymru: 397 (43.9%, +4.2%)
Reform UK: 253 (28%, new)
Labour: 159 (17.6%, -21.6%)
Conservative: 44 (4.9%, new)
Independent: 41 (4.5%, new)
Lib Dem (Caryl Tandy): 11 (1.2%, -6.6%)
Turnout: 26.6%
Plaid Cymru GAIN from Labour
South Kesteven DC, Grantham St Wulframs – 22 October 2026
In Lincolnshire, the Conservatives gained a seat from an Independent in the Grantham St Wulfram’s ward of South Kesteven District Council following a councillor resignation.
South Kesteven was historically a Conservative bastion, but their dominance has steadily receded – falling from 45 seats in 2015 to 24 in 2023, leaving the authority under No Overall Control. While the Liberal Democrats enjoy a strong base in the south of the district around Stamford, the party has not contested this Grantham division for several cycles.
In 2023, an Independent topped the poll in this two-member ward alongside a Conservative. This by-election saw the Conservatives take the Independent seat with 38.3% of the vote, holding off a second-place challenge from Reform UK while two Independent candidates and Labour divided the remaining vote. No Liberal Democrat candidate stood.
Conservative: 437 (38.3%, +4.6%)
Reform UK: 286 (25.1%, new)
Independent: 149 (13.1%, new)
Labour: 141, 12.4% (-4.1%)
Green Party: 74, (6.5%, -7.2%)
Independent: 54 (4.7%, new)
Turnout 28.5%
Conservative GAIN from Independent
Wychavon DC, Hartlebury – 22 October 2026
Across in Worcestershire, the Conservatives defended the Hartlebury ward of Wychavon District Council following a resignation.
Wychavon remains under Conservative majority control, but again with support dropping since 2015. They won 39/46 seats in 2015, slowly decreasing as the Green Party and Lib Dems picked up seats. In 2019 they won 36/46 and in 2023 29/46. Lib Dems currently sit as the primary opposition group on seven seats. Hartlebury itself has long been safe Conservative territory; back in 2019, the Liberal Democrats were the sole challengers in a two-horse race, though no Liberal Democrat candidate stood in this by-election.
In 2023 the field was contested by the Conservatives, Lib Dems, Green Party and an Independent. Very strangely, at the by-election, the field has almost entirely changed colours with Reform UK and Labour standing this time and only the Conservatives contesting again.
The Conservatives held the ward with just under half the vote on 49.9%, while Reform UK secured second place with 37.7% and Labour trailed in third.
Conservative: 315 (49.9%, -7.6%)
Reform UK: 238 (37.7%, new)
Labour: 78 (12.4%, new)
Turnout: 25.3%
Conservative HOLD
A full summary of these results, and all other principal council by-elections, can be found on the ALDC by-elections page here: https://www.aldc.org/category/by-election-results/
* Joe Nutt is a Campaigns and Communications Officer for ALDC
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20 Comments
The Conservative recovery in these contests is matched in The Polls where they have clearly pulled ahead off Reform over the last two weeks.
Much for the present Lib Dem hierarchy and the leadership to mull over in that lot. Clearly, the fat lady hasn’t sung yet on the events of the last few weeks.
213 votes across 5 seats. Hard to see a positive here.
It is unacceptable for the party in Worcestershire to decline to put a candidate up in Hartlebury. This is exactly the sort of territory that should be good for us. Two full-time party employees are paid a handsome salary to develop campaigning capacity in the West Midlands. Are they off sick?
Surely more evidence that the current malaise in the LibDems slowly weakening the LibDems. The leadership needs to take note – the promised changes in national presence need to happen now.
Slowly but surely the Conservatives are pulling themselves together. Badenoch seems to be all over the media while SirEd has slipped back into his vow of silence. Our seats won at the last election are going to be their top targets.
There is some validity in @YnysMonMan’s comment
In the late 90s with the list based Scottish Parliament elections on the horizon the Scottish Party in the form of the sadly-late Derek Barrie recognised the importance of trying to have some presence across all of Scotland and committed to contesting every council by-election. In some cases setting up systems to be aware of vacancies in areas where the party was so absent they might not have even found out there *was* a vacancy.
There is no way that a council in Worcestershire with a Lib Dem opposition group is harder territory to find and put up candidates than the central belt of Scotland in 1998!
I worry about all the plaudits and back-slapping that Tim Farron’s 2024 General Election Review piled onto the Gang of Four, where ‘the 2019 General Election was a bitter disappointment’ ‘Yet, thanks to strong leadership, a clear strategy and iron-fisted discipline’ … ‘these foundations were laid by a few key staff’ … ‘that ultimately resulted in the towering victory’ who are ‘CEO; Director of Field Campaigns; Chief of Staff to the leader; and, Director of Communications.’
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m absolutely certain that those people put in an enormous shift in their job, well above what could normally be expected and deserve our thanks. However, no mention of those four by-elections where, all the dedicated activists (the Poor B Infantry) turned out in droves to win us four seats in the run up to 2024 and persuade people we could actually win – Only mention ‘using by-elections to train staff and hone campaigning techniques.’
Also most critically, no mention our membership that in that time fell from 98,000 to 60,000 and now seems not to be being reported anywhere.
Quite simply my view is that if the party hierarchy don’t stop our never-ending obsession with niche causes, and get some policies out there that are short, succinct and focussed on real problems we will be in grave danger.
All in all, if our MPs don’t pull their individual socks up and make themselves totally “Mr or Mrs Go To Person Fighting For You”, 2029 could be a real test.
It’s a fair analysis. In 2017 the Lib Dems were second in only a handful of seats. 2019 saw them move into second in a substantially greater number so it can legitimately be seen as a foundation for the successes of 2024.
“All in all, if our MPs don’t pull their individual socks up and make themselves totally “Mr or Mrs Go To Person Fighting For You”, 2029 could be a real test.”
Though in 2015 this tactic was tested and found wanting. Probably no need to worry unless a idiot South African rocks up with a big polling budget though….
I’ve been a Lib/Lib Dem voter for 50 years. However, I’m finding it more and more difficult to justify this to friends and family (snd sometimes even myself) as I’m no longer sure what the core “message” is. It strikes me there are two reasons. One is that the Lib Dem leadership is invisible on mainstream media and derided on social media, in my experience. To be fair, this may not be Ed Davey’s fault, as sadly the media are more interested in who is “new on the block.” The other reason, as mentioned above, is that the pronouncements I do read about are related to minority interests which, whilst laudable, do not resonate with the majority of the population or their day to day concerns. Having said that, I will probably stick with Lib Dem, if only because I see them as a party of consensus, a defence against the confrontational politics of Reform and Green and the sclerotic politics of Lab and Con.
David Evans – agree, agree.
Indeed next May defending those 2023 gains will be mighty difficult.
We are in the same complacent state of 2012-25, we know how that ended.
I agree with much of what Richard Cripps says – and I’ve been a member for 54 years. If I wasn’t already a member I’m not sure that what the party has become would attract me. So often nowadays a political programme will mention almost all the other parties, but leave us out. Or if they do mention us, it’s followed by some withering comment. If the party leadership doesn’t come up with short and zippy reasons why people should support us, the party will die.
Like Richard Cripps and David Blake I am a long term member having joined the party as a young Liberal in 1964, 62 years and counting.
In the first election I remember, 1959, the liberals won only 6 seats, one up from the all time low of 5 MPs following the defection of Megan Lloyd George to Labour and the sybsequent loss of a by-election. Of those 4 were held only by virtue of a electoral pact with the Tories.
In my lifetime we have had 12 leaders and during that whole time no leader has been able to get across what we stand for to sufficient voters. So, the problem that keeps being identified is not new. Sure, there have been times when a particular policy has caught voters’ attention. Iraq, Bollocks to Brexit to name a couple.
We now have the largest number of MPs in my lifetime and indeed since 1923. There is a possibility of more at the next election.
Don’t those people who want us to come up with zippy slogans realise we’ve been trying to do that for years without obvious success? Why is it suddenly imperative to do that now?
We have a press that has almost always been hostile to us and social media is largely owned by those who wish us harm. We have to keep chipping away with our own means of communication and not valiantly hope things can suddenly not be what they are.
I am one of the “I have been in the party for 50 years” brigade and I agree with Richard and David. I was enthused to join The Liberal Party in 1974 by the fact that we had a radical cutting edge tempered by commonsense. We may still speak commonsense but the radical cutting edge is sadly lacking. I suppose it’s a question of don’t spook the home counties horses.
The evidence suggests the Conservatives are back, that should say it all and tell us to wake up.
Mick Taylor has it spot on.
The point made by Roger Billins is extremely worrying. I, too, am part of this brigade.
The reality is that the party leaders don’t seem to have any concern about what we are saying. Basically, it’s deemed to be rubbish. They know best. Then they send out poorly constructed requests for money…..as far as I am concerned they can take a running jump. I’m not prepared to contribute to a party that can’t even describe what it stands for.
There are a lot of us both within (and without) the party – and I speak from knowledge of people in the south and south east – who are totally demotivated.
I don’t think the Lib Dem problem is a lack of zippy slogans. I think, if anything, its a prioritisation of zippy slogans. Neither Badenoch or Burnham seem to have a zippy slogan. What they have in common is a narrative of the recent past that is simultaneously deeply discontented with the past 30-40 years (even though their parties built the politics of those years), nostalgic, constructivist (this is what we’ll do in practical policy terms, it’ll take time – yes, even Badenoch, she’s learnt from Johnson what not to do) and offering to reset politics in new directions that can offer options to younger voters who don’t remember the past yet still buy the narrative.
Davey has no grand historical narrative and no nostalgia and clear no future hope (or if he did, Badenoch and Burnham are stealing his clothes). What policy offer he has is entirely transactional and targetted as self-interstd cliques (which, yes, Badenoch is also doing, but with ideology) and relies on the modern neoliberal consensus of small-to-medium/cheap state, large level of regulatory responsibility for the state (which both the B’s are starting to trash and move away from, in different directions).
Oh, and Roger Billins, I no longer see the party as a party of consensus, certainly not democratically derived negotiated consensus. Maybe the party of a consensus/orthodoxy among members of a political subclass.
Oops, Richard Cripps not Roger Billins.