Hefty swing from Conservatives to Liberal Democrats in Surrey
Two council by-elections this week and only one Liberal Democrat candidate. But things are better than that statistic makes it sound, for the contest without a Lib Dem is from the City of London Corporation, where independent candidates usually dominate. This time it is five independents and one SDP (modern, Eurosceptic variety) fighting to succeed an independent there.
On then to the results…
Billingsgate, City of London
Go, SDP:
IND Masojada: 52
IND Heath-Richardson: 25
IND Kent: 15
IND Raja: 9
IND De Suasmarez: 8
SDP: 0— Election Maps UK (@ElectionMapsUK) January 31, 2019
Warlingham, Surrey
The most impressive Charles Lister stood for the Liberal Democrats here, following up having been the candidate last time too. Congratulations to him and the team on a hefty swing from the Conservatives:
Warlingham (Surrey) result:
CON: 48.1% (-8.1)
LDEM: 39.7% (+10.8)
UKIP: 7.1% (-2.9)
LAB: 5.1% (+0.3)Conservative HOLD.
— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) January 31, 2019
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.
Hi Mark,
The Billingsgate Aldermanic election was a most unusual one. For example, one of the fellow candidates on the ballot paper, James, in a City of London election in April 2017 received 113 votes.. yet he received just 8 votes in this Billingsgate Aldermanic election.
The ward of Billingsgate is overwhelmingly the ‘insurance’ vote. Most of the other candidates on the ballot paper were names in the City before my name was on my birth certificate, and have built up their name in Billingsgate over decades. I started my campaign in early January 2019! I think any political party standing would have struggled, as there was such a vote share surge for the top two candidates (71%). The Conservatives might have polled maybe 4 or 5 votes max at most, as there is a small ‘c’ conservative undercurrent in Billingsgate. Any other political party standing would have received 0 votes, or certainly around the zero mark; so Billingsgate is by means an accurate barometer of even the rest of the City of London, let alone Greater London.
Kind regards,
Jonathan Bergdahl