Nigel Farage won back Clacton on 13 August with 22,239 votes, beating a satirical candidate by 12,784 in a contest no major party would fight. Every share figure quoted from that result rests on a valid-vote total the council never printed. In four council wards where Reform UK was actually opposed, it lost three seats it won in May and gained one. Scottish Labour's nomination threshold cut its field from three to two.
Reform lost three of four contested wards in August; Clacton's 63% share reflects a boycott, not growth.
Nigel Farage polled 22,239 votes in Clacton on 13 August and beat a satirical candidate by 12,784, in a by-election five parties refused to fight.
United KingdomNigel Farage won the Clacton by-election on 13 August. He took 22,239 votes, a majority of 12,784 over satirical candidate Count Binface, on turnout of just 44.37% among a record 34 candidates.
No major party stood, so the scale of his win says more about who stayed home than who changed sides. It capped an uneven summer of local results for Reform.
The vote for everyone other than Farage fell from 24,733 to 12,872 in two years, while his own rose by 1,014.
United KingdomClacton's headline swing hides a simpler story about Farage. His vote barely moved, rising by just 1,014 since the 2024 general election, while everyone else's vote nearly halved.
Turnout fell from 58.7% to 44.37%, so the real story is who stopped voting against him, not who switched sides.
Michael Marra and Joe Fagan will go to Scottish Labour's members on 28 August. Monica Lennon fell short of the parliamentary nominations and is off the paper.
Scottish Labour's leadership contest narrowed to two candidates on 17 August. Monica Lennon matched the required Holyrood backing but won only 2 of the 3 MPs she needed. Michael Marra and Joe Fagan reached the members' ballot.
Marra took 24 of the party's MPs against Fagan's 7 and Lennon's 2. Westminster support consolidated hard behind one candidate before the parliamentary gate even closed.
Reform UK took a Carlisle ward from Labour on 20 August, 560 votes to 469, in a seat it had never previously contested.
Reform UK gained Harraby South ward in Cumberland from Labour on 20 August. The vote was 560 to 469, a 46.2% to 33.3% split of 1,317 valid votes.
Reform did not stand here in 2022. This is a first-time win, not proof that Labour voters are switching sides.
Reform UK polled a higher share in St Neots Eynesbury than it did in May and lost the ward anyway, by 17.6 points.
The Liberal Democrats gained St Neots Eynesbury ward in Huntingdonshire from Reform UK on 20 August. The vote was 1,024 to 647, a 47.9% to 30.3% split of 2,138 valid votes.
Reform's own vote share barely moved, up just 3.1 points. The Liberal Democrat share jumped 29.8 points, a sign that other parties' supporters piled in tactically rather than Reform voters switching sides.
Labour won Penistone East on 20 August with 1,728 votes to Reform UK's 795, in a ward that returned three members in May.
Labour gained Penistone East ward in Barnsley from Reform UK on 20 August. It took 1,728 of 3,339 valid votes, 51.8%, against Reform's 795 votes, or 23.8%.
The ward elected three councillors together in May, so this single-seat by-election cannot be measured against that result as a normal swing.
Almondbury changed hands on 13 August, with the Liberal Democrats on 43.9% and Reform UK, which won the ward in May, down to 27.0%.
The Liberal Democrats gained Almondbury on Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council from Reform UK on 13 August, 43.9% to 27.0%. Reform had won the same ward on 7 May.
Reform held Almondbury for just over three months before losing it. That suggests its new local councillors have little incumbency protection to fall back on yet.
Jack McGlenen, elected for Reform UK in 2025 and latterly an independent, now sits for the UK Social Democratic Party on Durham County Council.
Jack McGlenen, a Durham County Council member for Dalton and Dawdon, has moved from independent to the UK Social Democratic Party.
Open Council Data recorded the switch on 20 August, though that is a record-update date rather than a confirmed announcement. McGlenen was originally elected for Reform UK in 2025.
