GUEST POST Old Carp's Almanack: Councillor defections in 2024

Augustus Carp, our man with the Local Government Chronicle and a slide rule, looks back on a year packed with defecting councillors.

As a start to the New Year, here’s a handy cut-out-'n-keep souvenir edition of all the defections by local government councillors we are aware of in 2024. The net changes are 

• Conservatives -186
• Labour -192
• Lib Dems -69 
• Greens +8
• Nationalists -20
• Reform UK +58 

The balancing figure consists of 401 Independents, broadly defined, as not all changes are directly from one party to another. 

I freely confess that when I started this exercise a couple of years ago I had no idea of the numbers involved, but for 445 elected representatives to change their party allegiance in just one year strikes me as rather high.

Nevertheless, for sensible analysis of local politics we need to rely on the experts – people like Andrew Teale, Mark Pack, Britain Elects and the others, who examine the by elections, calculate the swings and thence extrapolate into the future.

They provide us with solid sustenance, whereas the defections summarised above are perhaps more like herbs and spices – they might add something to the dish, but can be somewhat repulsive if relied on too much, so please use them with caution.  

“But what”, I hear you cry, “about the mass Labour defections in Broxtowe? And that unusual Conservative resignation in Oldham?”  

Well, the thing is, they all happened in 2025, so you will have to wait a while before they are tallied and collated – perhaps until late April, when I will look at the situation again, just before the (cancelled?) local elections in May.

Augustus Carp is the pen name of someone who has been a member of the Liberal Party and then the Liberal Democrats since 1976.