Council by-elections Labour fails to make the top two in string of votes

Labour failed to gain any seats in by-elections on a night when it failed to get above 11 per cent in three wards.

The party won around one in nine votes cast in a ward in Devon, and did not stand a candidate in two other seats, while the Lib Dems continued to make gains.

The Labour candidate in Charterlands, South Hams, picked up 10.7 per cent from a standing start because the party did not contest the ward in the previous election.

In Barton, in the Kettering council area, and Chigwell in Epping Forest on the edge of London, Labour did not put up a candidate, unlike at the previous vote, according to Britain Elects.

Overall the Lib Dems gained two seats from the Tories while Theresa May’s party held their ward in the true-blue heartland of Chigwell, home to the “Essex girls” comedy Birds of a Feather.

Charterlands (South Hams)

Lib Dem gain from Conservative

Lib Dems 46.1 per cent (+46.1)

Conservative: 39.3 per cent (-25)

Labour: Labour 10.7 per cent (+10.7)

Green: 3.9 per cent (-15.6)

No independent candidate, unlike the last election.

Barton (Kettering)

Lib Dem gain from Conservative

Lib Dems: 57 per cent (+57)

Conservative: 29.8 per cent (-19.3)

UKIP: 9.4 per cent (-14.1)

Green: 3.7 per cent (-3.5)

No Labour candidate, unlike the last election.

Chigwell village (Epping Forest)

Conservative hold

Conservative: 76 per cent (+13.6)

Lib Dem 24 per cent (+20.5)

No Labour or Green candidate, unlike the last election.