Political

Two Lib Dem losses in this week’s council by-elections

A bumper set of nine council by-elections this week, including two Liberal Democrat defences.

A small Lib Dem vote increase in the first result to come in:

But that is followed by a Lib Dem seat loss in the council’s other by-election, in a ward where the party had made a dramatic breakthrough with a by-election win in 2014 and then won again in both 2015 and a 2016 by-election caused by a Lib Dem resignation. A second by-election in the ward in just over a year caused by a Lib Dem resignation didn’t go so well:

A further Lib Dem seat loss up in Cubmria, where the party didn’t even put up a candidate this time (here’s why that matters):

Mixed results elsewhere too in areas where the party has been weak for some time:

But signs of progress too:

Worth noting that the Merton team made canny use of a by-election where the chances of winning were very slim to experiment with different campaign techniques and see what works best. A great example of how every by-election is an opportunity.

The final two results to come in are also more promising, with Lib Dem candidates where there weren’t ones before:

These by-election results round-ups cover principal authority by-elections. See my post The danger in celebrating parish and town council wins for your own party for the reasons to avoid straying too often into covering town, parish or community council by-elections.

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