Three of Thursday’s four council by-elections were in London, and all saw swings from Conservative to Labour.

The smallest was in Camden, for a seat that Labour held comfortably and where the Greens slipped from second to third:

This result represented a 0.1% swing from Tory to Labour.

A larger swing of 4.6% was seen in a safe Conservative ward of Brent council:

The Tories held this seat easily, though with a reduced majority.

The biggest swing took place for a safe Labour seat on Croydon council. Here there was a 9.8% swing from Conservative to Labour, in a ward very near to the constituency of Croydon Central: one of Labour’s top London targets:

The only seat to change hands on Thursday was outside London. A seat on Essex county council was gained by the Tories from Ukip:

Here there was a 3.6% swing from Ukip to the Conservatives.

The three London results suggest a continuation of the trend that was evident in last year’s local and European elections of Labour doing better in the capital in terms of swing than elsewhere in the UK. A comparison with the 2010 London polls that took place on the same day as the previous general election shows an average 8.1% swing to Labour in the three wards.