Thursday 24th April saw four principal by-elections (each of them with a Lib Dem candidate), including a Liberal Democrat defence.
Congratulations are due to Cllr Tom McCann and the West Berkshire team, who held Thatcham North East, despite an increased field. Both Labour and Reform were new onto the ballot, and their combined support was much more than the dip in the Lib Dem vote share.
West Berkshire District Council, Thatcham North East
Liberal Democrats (Tom McCann): 690 (41.1, -14.8)
Conservative: 428 (25.5%, +0.1)
Reform UK: 367 (21.9%, new)
Green Party: 127 (7.6%, -11.0)
Labour: 65 (3.9%, new)
Liberal Democrat HOLD
Meanwhile, there was a near miss in Arun, where there was a Lib Dem/Reform battle to gain from independent in Marine ward, whose other councillor is a Liberal Democrat. Commiserations to Paul Wells and the team, who were pipped by just ten votes.
Arun District Council, Marine
Reform UK: 306 (26.0%, new)
Liberal Democrats (Paul Wells): 296 (25.2%, -2.8)
Labour: 236 (20.1%, -1.1)
Conservative: 192 (16.3%, -1.3)
Green Party: 115 (9.8%, new)
Independent: 31 (2.6%, new)
Reform UK GAIN from Independent
Elsewhere, there were vote share increases in the two other by-elections, in Suffolk and Fife. Kelly Turner and Ed Scotcher each overtook the Conservatives by nearly tripling and nearly doubling the Lib Dem support in St Johns, and Glenrothes Central and Thornton, respectively. Thank you to them and their teams.
Suffolk County Council, St John’s
Labour: 600 (28%, -19.7)
Green Party: 458 (21.4%, +13.6)
Reform UK: 442 (20.6%, new)
2 / 2
Liberal Democrats (Kelly Turner): 323 (15.1%, +9.8)
Conservative: 318 (14.9%, -21.3)
Labour HOLD
Fife Council, Glenrothes Central and Thornton
SNP: 1439 (47.6%, -1.1)
Labour: 649 (21.5%, -6.4)
Reform UK: 541 (17.9%, new)
Liberal Democrats (Ed Scotcher): 207 (6.9%, +3)
Conservative: 185 (6.1%, -6)
SNP HOLD
Thank you to all of our candidates, agents, and campaign teams.
A full summary of these results, and all other principal council by-elections, can be found on the ALDC by-elections page here.
* ALDC is the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors and Campaigners
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
"Corporations have neither bodies to be punished, nor souls to be condemned, they therefore do as they like"
Another Sunday band concert at Magdalen Green #dundeewestend
Beware the white lady
Andrew Melmoth
ANDERS LARSON
John McHugo
Steve Trevthan
William Wallace
2 Comments
As we come to the local elections it is useful to look at a larger set of by-election results rather than just the few held this week. Here is my data for the last fifty local by-elections:
Share of vote:
Conservatives 23.93%, Liberal Democrats 21.08%, Labour 20.22%, Reform 18.50%, Greens 9.78%, Others 6.49%
Gains and losses are:
Reform: Net gain of eight: 8 gains, 0 held, 0 lost
Lib Dems: Net gain of three: 5 gains, 10 held, 2 lost
Greens: Net gain of one: 2 gains, 1 held, 1 lost
Independents: Net gain of one: 3 gains, 1 held, 2 lost
Conservatives: Net loss of one: 4 gains, 7 held, 5 lost
Plaid Cymru: Net loss of one: 0 gains, 2 held, 1 lost
Labour: Net loss of eleven: 0 gains, 8 held, 11 lost
Liberal Democrats won 15 seats, Conservatives 11, Labour 8, Reform 8, Independents 4, Greens 3, Plaid Cymru 2
(This does not add up to 50 as there was a double election in one ward)
This data is for the most recent 50 by-elections in England & Wales (6th February to 24th April). Parish/Town councils are not included.
Arun could have had some welly thrown at it as 6 extra voters needed to stop Reform from winning.