This week saw five principal council by-elections for six seats across the UK. Labour and Lib Dems loss a net of one seat this week, with the former gaining one but losing two to SNP and an independent, and the latter placing a close third in the only double vacancy of the week. SNP also lost their only defence in the same ward but gained a seat from Labour in other parts of Scotland.

For the good news, the Lib Dems defended the seat in Liverpool City Council handsomely over the second place Labour candidate. In the Much Woolton & Hunts Cross ward, Cllr Josie Mullen the team worked hard to maintain over half of the vote share in the area, thank you to Josie and team for running a great campaign and holding the seat!

Liverpool City Council, Much Woolton & Hunts Cross
Liberal Democrat (Josie Mullen): 1011 (51.1%, -2.4%)
Labour: 537 (27.1%, -4.2%)
Reform: 218 (11.0%, new)
Green Party: 170 (8.6%, -2.0%)
Conservative: 42 (2.1%, -2.3%)

Featuring a list of 13 candidates, the other Lib Dem defence this week is also a SNP defence in Edinburgh Council, following unfortunate circumstances leading to our by-election winner stepping down. In the Conlinton/Fairmilehead ward, the Tories came in first while the Lib Dems and Labour battled it out until stage 12. Well done and thank you to Peter Nicholson and the team for putting in the effort for a well-fought campaign, this was certainly an uphill battle if there ever was one.

Edinburgh Council, Colinton/Fairmilehead (based on first preference votes, Conservative elected at stage 8, Labour elected at stage 13)
Conservative: 2027 (32.6%, +12.9%)
Labour: 1146 (18.4%, -1.1%)
Liberal Democrat (Peter Nicholson): 1009 (16.2%, -20.0%)
SNP: 840 (13.5%, +2.7%)
Green Party: 426 (6.8%, +1.5%)
Reform: 345 (5.5%, +1.9%)
Independent: 256 (4.1%, +1.8%)
Scottish Family Party: 65 (1.0%, +0.4%)
Independent: 38 (0.6%, -0.2%)
Independent: 30 (0.5%, +0.2%)
Independent: 23 (0.4%, -0.3%)
Independent: 12 (0.2%, new)
Independent: 5 (0.1%, new)

A less chaotic race in Scotland saw SNP gaining the seat in Stirling Council from Labour. Thank you to William Galloway for representing the Lib Dems in the Bannockburn ward.

Stirling Council, Bannockburn (based on first preference votes, SNP elected stage 6)
SNP: 565 (35.9%, +7.2%)
Labour: 376 (23.9%, +3.1%)
Reform: 358 (22.7%, new)
Conservative: 169 (10.7%, -8.4%)
Liberal Democrat (William Galloway): 55 (3.5%, +1.4%)
Green Party: 53 (3.4%, +1.0%)

For the final by-election featuring a Lib Dem candidate this week, Labour managed to hold onto the seat despite losing almost 30% of support in the Town ward in Newcastle-under-Lyme BC. Thank you to Nigel Jones for standing and giving the residents a Lib Dem choice on the ballot!

Newcastle-under-Lyme BC, Town
Labour: 309 (39.9%, -28.4%)
Conservative: 226 (29.2%, -2.5%)
Reform: 168 (21.7%, new)
Liberal Democrat (Nigel Jones): 71 (9.2%, new)

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