Kmflett's Blog

You can read far too much into local Council by-election results (the Council wide elections in May 2026 offer a slightly better perspective perhaps). Turn-out is often low and all kind of local factors are at play. For example in the Leicester result below OL is One Leicester a sort of Keith Vaz support group it appears..

All the data is from Election Maps on BlueSky. Of note is that until quite recently Reform was either winning or doing well in weekly by-elections. Here rather less so. Both Labour and Tory are doing badly but the winners are not Reform but the Greens, Plaid and the LibDems.

The results perhaps suggest a wider mood of stopping Reform but that mood is far from only electoral. Its roots like in political, community and union campaigning and organisation.

Stoneygate (Leicester) Council By-Election Result:

🌍 GRN: 30.4% (+22.9)
🌹 LAB: 27.7% (-12.8)
🏘️ OL: 16.2% (New)
🙋 Ind: 11.5% (New)
🌳 CON: 8.3% (-15.3)
➡️ RFM: 2.7% (New)
🔶 LDM: 1.6% (-5.9)
🙋 Ind: 1.6% (New)

No Ind (-21.0) as previous.

Green GAIN from Labour.
Changes w/ 2023.

Van (Caerphilly) Council By-Election Result:

🌼 PLC: 43.3% (-1.9)
➡️ RFM: 28.5% (New)
🌹 LAB: 26.8% (-28.0)
🔶 LDM: 1.4% (New)

Plaid Cymru GAIN from Labour.
Changes w/ 2022.

Zetland (Redcar & Cleveland) Council By-Election Result:

🔶 LDM: 50.5% (+15.2)
🌹 LAB: 21.6% (-25.2)
➡️ RFM: 13.5% (New)
🌍 GRN: 7.4% (New)
🌳 CON: 7.0% (-10.9)

Liberal Democrat GAIN from Labour.
Changes w/ 2023.