Labour gain one seat from Conservatives in this week’s by-elections

Five principal authority council by-elections this week, with four Lib Dem candidates in them.

Thank you to Timothy Harwood for standing and ensuring the Lib Dems were on the ballot even as others fell off it.

Congratulations to Julie Cook on getting the Lib Dems back on the ballot here and performing much better than ever previously in this ward.

Thank you to Hugh Janes for being the Liberal Democrat candidate.

Peter Edwards was the Lib Dem candidate, and make impressive progress – also illustrating why the party shouldn’t just sit out contests where two other parties finished ahead of us last time.

No Lib Dem alas in the final contest:

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 as it’s only those for which comprehensive results are available. But this week, these by-elections at the town/parish/community council level did catch my eye:

Congratulations to Lib Dem Lionel O’Hara for his Sevenoaks Town Council win over Labour taking the council to 16 out of 16 seats being held by Lib Dems.

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: