November and December’s by-election summary

There were forty-two local authority by-elections in the final two months of last year, of which thirteen resulted in seats changing hands.

party	vote share %	seats won	candidates	net gain
Conservative	30.5	15	38	1
Labour	24.5	13	37	-5
UKIP	18.8	4	31	3
Liberal Democrat	9.5	3	24	1
Independent	7.0	2	18	-2
SNP	5.9	3	4	2
Green	2.7	0	18	0
Plaid Cymru	1.1	2	3	1
Others	0.2	0	6	-1

Nationalists parties certainly appear to be the flavour of the month(s) with UKIP, SNP and PC making six gains between them. The minus five number against Labour is worrying; there were actually six losses (offset by one gain) – two to the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, and sole gains for the SNP and an independent.

Otherwise it is a story of no real change.