COUNCIL BY-ELECTIONS 20.03.25

This week there were four by-elections - two in England and two in Glasgow - plus the curious case of the City of London (see below).

Labour fought three of the by-elections, with their vote share down in all of them.  They lost two seats to the SNP in Glasgow, which will be a blow to them given the SNP's overall struggles recently.  In the Lincolnshire district of South Kesteven both Labour and the Tories suffered a large swing to Reform UK, who were just 23 votes shy of victory.  Reform's electoral prowess appears to be rising above the ongoing Lowe-Farage row.

City of London Corporation elections

The City of London Corporation held its all out elections on Thursday.  As the name suggests, this is a somewhat unique organisation as local councils go.  For starters they don't hold their elections in May along with everyone else!  The Corporation runs 25 wards in central London, with a total population of less than 10,000.  Despite this tiny sum of residents, there are a whopping 100 councillors returned across the 25 wards, with as many as six candidates elected in some.  It's a fairly uninteresting affair with regards to party politics as the ballot papers are overwhelmingly dominated by independents and some wards do not even get a vote because there is only one candidate.

The only major political party that puts forward candidates in the City of London is Labour, although they only contest a small number of wards.  They won five seats in the 2022 elections and seven this time around.  However, that net gain of two should not be seen as any particular electoral success.  Two of those seats were in Cripplegate ward, which returns five councillors and there were only five candidates to choose from, so the Labour pair could not lose.  They also won three seats in Aldersgate ward, which returns six councillors with only seven candidates to choose from, so Labour were guaranteed at least two seats there also.

The full results of these elections can be found on the council website here.

North East, Glasgow City Council

(first preference votes)

SNP: 689 (34.5%) +2.3%

Lab: 573 (28.7%) -5.6%

Ref: 472 (23.6%) +5.3%

Con: 81 (4.1%) -1.3%

Grn: 70 (3.5%) -0.7%

TUS: 52 (2.6%) -1.1%

LDm: 37 (1.9%) -0.1%

UKIP: 24 (1.2%) New

SNP GAIN from Lab

Southside Central, Glasgow City Council

(first preference votes)

SNP: 1,126 (30.0%) -4.2%

Lab: 1,027 (27.4%) -4.1%

Grn: 805 (21.5%) +3.4%

SSP: 271 (7.2%) +5.2%

Ref: 222 (5.9%) New

LDm: 155 (4.1%) +2.7%

Con: 102 (2.7%) -1.4%

UKIP: 41 (1.1%) New

SNP GAIN from Lab

Holmwoods & Beare Green, Mole Valley District Council

LDm: 748 (46.5%) +1.1%

Con: 437 (27.2%) -2.8%

Ref: 348 (21.6%) +11.5%

Grn: 76 (4.7%) -3.6%

LDm HOLD

Bracebridge Heath, North Kesteven District Council

Con: 308 (33.3%) -24.6%

Ref: 286 (30.9%) New

Ind: 153 (16.5%) New

Lab: 99 (10.7%) -31.4%

Grn: 43 (4.6%) New

LDm: 36 (3.9%) New

Con HOLD

Abbreviations

SNP = Scottish National Party

Lab = Labour

Ref = Reform UK

Con = Conservative

Grn = Green

TUS = Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition

LDm = Liberal Democrat

UKIP = United Kingdom Independence Party

SSP = Scottish Socialist Party

Ind = Independent