Political

Is it eight or nine local council by-elections this week?

Eight or nine council by-elections this week? It was scheduled to be nine, but one ward in South Oxfordshire produced only a Conservative candidate at close of nominations, resulting in their election unopposed. The other wards see seven Liberal Democrat candidates in total, a slip on the last few weeks but still up on some of the poor runs of the past.

First in, a Conservative hold in a ward that used to regularly have Liberal Democrat candidates until last time (2015). Good to see that pattern returning.

After no candidate the last three times round in the ward, there was a Lib Dem candidate up in Wigan this time:

Back in 2004 and 2006 this ward elected Lib Dem councillors, with the slide in Lib Dem fortunes then starting. It’s another little indication of how for all the damage that the 2010 coalition made to Lib Dem election results, there were many problems for the party pre-2010. Hence my regular argument that to prosper in the future, simply saying ‘we stuffed stuff up in 2010’ misses many of the problems we need to address.

A typically idiosyncratic result in Hartlepool, with alas no Lib Dem candidate:

A trio of council by-elections in Nottingnham where, however, the rebuilding local party managed to contest the full slate:

Curiously, all three wards are in the same Parliamentary seat – Nottingham North. It’s one where the Lib Dems scored under 2% at the general election. Two of the three Lib Dem candidates this time round were new members, so there are now some early signs of recovery for the party.

One of these wards returned Lib Dems back in 2003 – another example of the point I made above regarding Wigan.

Over in Lincoln:

More results as they come.

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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