At the 2002 local elections, 37 Labour councillors, 32 Conservative councillors and one Liberal Democrat councillor were elected, maintaining Labour control of the Council. Subsequently, one Conservative councillor defected to Labour, defected back to the Conservatives, became an independent and then a Liberal Democrat. Following the death of one Labour councillor and the resignation of two councillors, three by-elections were won by the incumbent party in each case. A 6% swing from Labour to Conservative was seen in the last two in the run-up to the 2006 elections. However, following the Conservatives' victory in 2006, a February 2007 by-election saw a large swing back to Labour.