Council by-elections: Labour vote share increases as Conservatives hold seat

Labour’s vote share increased as the Tories held their seat on a night where only one council ward was contested.

Labour saw its vote bounce up 7.1 points to 36.7 per cent in Norton, Bromsgrove, with the Conservative vote dropping 16.6 points to 43.2 per cent.

The Green party saw their vote share drop 6.6 points as they gained just 3.9 per cent of the vote, and UKIP gained 16.2 points to 16.2 per cent. These results come via Britain Elects.

This comes as polls for Labour nationally show the party unable to make gains on the Tories strong lead. A Times/YouGov poll showed that the Conservatives under Theresa May enjoy a 17 point lead.

Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership Labour have won the London mayoral contest and previous Labour-held by-elections such as Tooting and Oldham West and Royton in recent years.

Looking ahead to the Copeland and Stoke-on-Trent central by-elections to be held the hope is that any poor polling nationally will not impact our performance in these votes.

Gillian Troughton was last night chosen as Labour’s candidate for the Copeland by-election.

Norton (Bromsgrove)

Conservative: 43.2 per cent (-16.6)

Labour: 36.7 per cent (+7.1)

UKIP: 16.2 per cent (+16.2)

Green: 3.9 per cent (-6.6)