Full slate of Lib Dem candidates in this week’s by-elections

Three principal authority council by-elections this week, along with one delayed election from May due to the death of a candidate. Good news that there’s a full slate of Liberal Democrat candidates this time around. (Here’s why that matters.)

Here are the results:

Thank you to Nana Boddy for standing for the Liberal Democrats.

Next, a rare Conservative gain:

Thank you to Oliver Walker for being the Liberal Democrat candidate.

Justine Ragany was the Liberal Democrat candidate – thank you.

That second place is an improvement on our third place last time in this ward, in a 2021 council by-election. (Vote share changes are from a previous election rather than from the by-election.)

Thank you to Martin Griffiths for being the Lib Dem candidate.

For what all this means for the running total of council by-election results since the last May elections, see my council by-elections scorecard here.

These by-election results round-ups cover principal authority by-elections. See my post The danger in celebrating parish and town council wins for your own party for the reasons to avoid straying too often into covering town, parish or community council by-elections.

Understanding the opinion polls

For understanding what is happening in politics, by-elections have the advantage of being real votes in real ballot boxes. But the opinion polls have the advantage of trying to be a representative sample of voters, not just those in the places that happen to have by-elections. To understand the polls properly – and what they do and don’t really tell us – see my book, Polling UnPacked: The History, Uses and Abuses of Political Opinion Polls.

Get by-election results by email

If you sign up for my daily email with the latest pieces from this site, you’ll also get included as a little bonus the full set of council by-election results each week: