COUNCIL BY-ELECTIONS 04.12.25

Five seats were being contested on Thursday, following Tuesday's by-election in Derbyshire.  The Derbyshire vacancy arose through the resignation of one of last May's crop of Reform councillors.  Reform held the seat by a wafer thin majority of 23, with the second placed Tories having significantly closed the gap.

Reform took advantage of an even slimmer margin to take a Lib Dem seat in Middlesbrough, pipping the incumbents by just 13 votes.  Labour finished last here and the best they could muster on Thursday was a couple of fourth places.

Labour were on a proxy defence in Nottinghamshire, where the incumbent was elected as a Labour councillor before he left for the local independent group last January.  He passed away in August, sparking a by-election.  The Broxtowe Alliance to which he belonged easily held the seat, which was technically a gain from Labour.  Labour slumped from first to fourth.

We still await any solid evidence of the Green surge, who only managed to contest four of the six seats and couldn't achieve anything better than Labour's fourth place.  Still, that's better than anything achieved by the Fruit and Nuts of Sultana and Corbyn...

Stapleford South East, Broxtowe Borough Council

Ind: 388 (34.6%) New

Ref: 245 (21.9%) New

LDm: 149 (13.3%) -8.2%

Lab: 128 (11.4%) -14.7%

Con: 108 (9.6%) -9.5%

Ind: 102 (9.2%) New

Ind GAIN from Lab

Exmouth Halsdon, East Devon District Council

LDm: 551 (35.9%) -4.0%

Ref: 438 (28.5%) New

Con: 393 (25.6%) -4.1%

Grn: 153 (10.0%) New

LDm HOLD

Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough Borough Council

Ref: 563 (35.8%) New

LDm: 550 (35.0%) -1.3%

Con: 328 (20.9%) -14.2%

Grn: 79 (5.0%) New

Lab: 53 (3.3%) -6.7%

Ref GAIN from LDm

Winkleigh, Torridge District Council

LDm: 325 (42.3%) +8.7%

Ref: 252 (32.8%) New

Con: 191 (24.9%) -23.7%

LDm GAIN from Con

Tudor, Watford Borough Council

LDm: 821 (52.6%) +4.3%

Ref: 433 (27.2%) +17.8%

Con: 148 (9.3%) -10.5%

Lab: 111 (7.0%) -16.4%

Grn: 77 (4.8%) New

LDm HOLD

Long Eaton North, Derbyshire County Council

(held on Tuesday)

Ref: 745 (28.1%) -7.7%

Con: 722 (27.2%) +4.2%

Lab: 579 (21.8%) -2.7%

Grn: 314 (11.8%) +4.5%

LDm: 154 (5.8%) -3.6%

Ind: 141 (5.3%) New

Ref HOLD