4pm update: Mixed night in council votes as Labour gain cancelled out by loss in Staffordshire

Labour made one gain and lost one ward in council by-elections last night.

The party took one seat in Telford and Wrekin, lost one in Newcastle-under-Lyme and held on in Lancaster.

Labour retained a ward in Lancaster despite a slight dip in the vote. A fourth result, from Maldon in Essex, was declared this afternoon.

The results, collated by BritainElects, represent something of a stabilisation after a series of net losses in local government by-elections in recent Thursdays.

In the third and fourth weeks of November Labour posted losses in a series of council polls including heavy falls in vote share in Newcastle and Mansfield.

The run of results will be seized on by opponents of Jeremy Corbyn, who fear the veteran left-winger cannot win a general election – although the party leader points out that Labour has won parliamentary by-elections in Tooting, and Oldham West and Royton, as well as the London mayoralty, since he took over in September 2015.

University and Scotforth Rural, Lancaster

Labour hold

Labour 34.9 per cent (-0.5)

Greens 28.1 (-4.4)

Conservatives 24.2 per cent (+0.5)

Lib Dems 12.8 per cent (+4.4)

Maldon West, Maldon

Independent gain from Conservative

Independent 38.1 per cent (+38.1)

Conservative 23.5 per cent (-6.4)

UKIP 15.6 per cent (+15.6)

Green 9.4 per cent (-10)

FUH 7 per cent (+7) (Fighting Unsustainable Housing described as the BNP by Britain Elects)

Labour 6.4 per cent (+6.4)

Madeley, Newcastle-under-Lyme

Independent gain from Labour

Independent 64.8 per cent (+64. 8)

Conservatives 15.8 per cent (-7.1)

Lib Dems 10.6 per cent (+10.6)

Labour 8.8 per cent (-35.5)

Horsehay and Lightmoor, Telford and Wrekin

Labour gain from Conservative

Labour 45.9 per cent (+20.5)

Conservatives: 38. 2 per cent (-3.8)

UKIP 15.9 per cent (-1.6)

Trench, Tonbridge and Malling

Conservative hold

Conservatives 61.2 per cent (+17.4)

Labour 20.7 per cent (+1.1)

UKIP 18.1 per cent (-0.4)