In the case of South Derbyshire, the Tory collapse on the district council had already started before 2021 with a damaging split in the party; the splinter group on the council voted out the Tory leader in 2020 and installed a Labour minority administration, which went on to win a majority in 2023. Roger Redfern lost his seat on the district council three months ago as Labour won Church Gresley ward by 60–40 in a straight fight with the Conservatives. Swadlincote South division also includes half of the Swadlincote district ward, which Labour won by 62–38 in May. Rottingdean Coastal has normally been a safe Conservative ward this century, but the Tories lost one of the three seats here in 2019 to independent candidate Bridget Fishleigh who topped the poll; Labour weren’t that far behind the Conservative slate that year either. The by-election is defended by the Conservatives following the resignation of councillor Joe Miller, who first came to the attention of this column in 2013 when he contested a by-election in the neighbouring East Brighton ward at the age of 18. Miller had served as a councillor for this ward since 2015, and in 2019 he was re-elected here at the same time as being elected to the neighbouring Lewes council. He was the Conservative candidate for the local seat of Brighton Kemptown in the 2019 general election, and briefly served as deputy leader of Lewes council. Defending for the Lib Dems is Ciaran Urry-Tuttiett, who might be wanting to make his own journey to Liverpool fairly soon: he is a committed Eurovision fan who presents a Song Contest-themed radio show. Urry-Tuttiett contested Fareham North ward in May. The Conservatives have reselected Harry Davis, who is still a teenager but already has a previous campaign in this ward under his belt: he was runner-up here in May. Another young candidate on the ballot is Dominic Martin for Labour, who completes the candidate list along with Dave Wiltshire of the Fareham Independent Group. The local press have interviewed all the candidates, and you can find out more here ( link). We finish with the Labour defence of the week, which comes at the northern end of St Helens. This town was called into existence by the Industrial Revolution as a centre of heavy industry, partly thanks to its location on the Lancashire coalfield, and it became a major centre for pharmaceuticals and glassmaking. Pilkington Glass is still a big employer in St Helens but no longer has the dominance it once did; the company was taken over by a Japanese firm in 2006, and some of its St Helens factories have since ceased production. This includes the Cowley Hill works to the north of the town centre, which is now being redeveloped. Labour are defending this by-election following the death of Labour councillor Diana Friend, a retired teacher who passed away in May at the age of 72. She was the serving deputy mayoress of Warrington, as her husband and fellow ward councillor Graham Friend was the borough’s deputy mayor for 2022–23. They married in 2017 within the ward, at the Church of the Resurrection in Cinnamon Brow; Diana was already a ward councillor then, having been first elected in 2016 under her previous surname of Bennett, and she and Graham had met through their political work.

Eight weeks later, the Labour group found themselves a man down following the resignation of Labour councillor Drew Moore, who indicated that he could not balance his new democratic duties with a new job. Moore had won the final seat in the ward with a majority of just 33 votes over the lead Conservative Peter Berry, so Labour have work to do to hold this by-election.

Regrettably, there has been a late change to today’s lineup of by-elections following the sad death late last month of Toby Murcott. He was an independent candidate for the Golden Valley South by-election of Herefordshire council, which was scheduled for today. That poll has now been postponed and will take place at a later date. This column sends its condolences to Mr Murcott’s family and friends. Later in 1926 the last male head of the Tatton family finally gave in and sold the rest of Wythenshawe to Manchester Corporation, who over the last century have filled it with council houses. The “garden suburb” of Wythenshawe is a claimant for the title of Europe’s largest council estate, and the five wards of Manchester city council which cover it today had a combined population of 79,000 in the 2021 census. Anywhere else in the country this would be a major town; but Wythenshawe has never even had town status, instead being just a Manchester suburb. Defending for the Conservatives is Peter Berry, who represents the area on Thorpe St Andrew town council. Labour have selected the wonderfully-named Calix Eden. Brian Howe completes the candidate list for the Lib Dems. Including Portchester. The Saxon Shore fort here, generally identified as Portus Adurni, is located on a promontory at the head of Portsmouth Harbour. It is described as the best-preserved Roman fort north of the Alps, with nearly all of the Roman outer walls and bastions still standing today. Some of the space within the fort is now occupied by a Norman castle, which was a frequent destination for English kings from Henry II onwards. Portchester was a regular embarkation point for English armies looking for a fight with the French; as late as the Napoleonic Wars, over 7,000 French prisoners of war were incarcerated here.

Plymouth council, Devon; caused respectively by the resignations of Conservative councillors Shannon Burden and Dan Collins. Plymouth is a port and a naval city, and always has been. The Royal Navy have been in situ in nearby Devonport for centuries; the civilian port on the Tamar estuary saw the departure of the Mayflower pilgrims in 1620, and continues to be an important point of entry to the UK with regular international ferries to Roscoff in Brittany and to Santander in Spain. Local by-election results don’t always reflect the national political scene, and we shouldn’t always expect them to. A rising political tide will normally work to lift all boats, but some get lifted more than others and there’s always something going on in the local picture to confound the national one if you look hard enough. Now, unlike some other cities, Oxford’s ring road doesn’t necessarily mark the end of the urban area: large parts of Oxford’s south-east fringe are outside the ring road. This includes the former village of Littlemore, which has existed for a very long time but only got a parish church in 1838; its first incumbent was John Henry Newman, who later became a Roman Catholic cardinal and a saint. Newman gives his name to the local primary school. Littlemore ward also takes in the Oxford Science Park and the Kassam Stadium, home of Oxford United FC, both of which are on the southern edge of the city. Russell is now seeking re-election for a third term of office as Alderman. This time he faces a bakeoff in Bread Street from Sarah Loveday, a chartered HR professional whose puntastic election slogan is “Knead for Change”. As normal, both candidates are Independent. The City’s electoral process started yesterday with the Wardmote, a public meeting-cum-hustings which has been adjourned for the poll, and which will reconvene tonight for the declaration of the result.

We now come to the only local government unit in the UK which still has Aldermen, the City of London. There are 25 Aldermen of the City, one for each ward, who are the senior councillors from whose ranks the Lord Mayor of London is chosen. We have the same party lineup in Plympton Chaddlewod. The difficult task of holding that ward for the Conservatives has fallen to Ashley Ward, who runs an electrical services company. He is likely to face a strong challenge from the Greens’ Lauren McLay, who describes herself as a local communications specialist. The other candidates for Chaddlewood are Lindsay Gilmour for Labour, Benjamin Davy of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, Mike Gillbard of the Lib Dems and independent candidate Andrew Hill. The Plymouth Herald have received statements from all the candidates in today’s by-elections except for the Lib Dems, and you can read more here for Moor View (link) and here for Plympton Chaddlewood (link). These are normally Conservative-voting areas. County councillor Rupert Simmons represented this area for almost 26 years until his death in April at the age of 70, starting his political career in 1997 on Heathfield and Waldron parish council; he had served continuously on East Sussex county council since 2001, and was also a Wealden district councillor from 1999 to 2003. His sixth and last re-election to the county council came in 2021 with a big lead of 59–19 over the Green Party. For the other East Midlands region we take another trip to England’s “smallest” “county” as we come to Uppingham, which with a population of just under 5,000 is the second-largest metropolis in Rutland. Uppingham is best-known to outsiders for its public school, which clearly shows up in its 2011 census return: the ward’s proportion of 16- and 17-year-olds (10.2%) is the sixth-highest of any ward in England and Wales and the highest figure for any ward in the East Midlands, and Uppingham ward is also in the top 50 for those employed in education (22.4%). The pupils are of course too young to vote, and for the adults Uppingham’s elections are curiously balanced affairs with no party ever standing a full slate for the three available seata. Four of the ward’s five ordinary elections this century have returned candidates from three different political traditions, including the 2019 election at which the Tories’ Lucy Stephenson and independent Marc Oxley were re-elected, while the Green Party’s Miranda Jones (who had been the Labour candidate here in 2015) defeated Tory councillor Rachel Burkitt for the final seat.