Lib Dems gain council seat off Conservatives with 21% swing
The council by-election pace picked up this week with seven contests – three for Labour seats, three for Conservatives seats and one for an independent seat.
Millfield, Blaby
No Liberal Democrat candidate, alas, continuing a run of no-shows all the way back to the ward’s creation for the 2003 elections.
Millfield (Blaby) result:
LAB: 52.2% (-1.0)
CON: 43.0% (-3.8)
GRN: 4.8% (+4.8)Labour HOLD.
— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) February 28, 2020
Duxford, Cambridgeshire
Peter McDonald, already a district councillor, was the Liberal Democrat candidate in an area that has seen spectacular Liberal Democrat progress in recent years. And it saw it again:
Liberal Democrat GAIN Duxford (Cambridgeshire) from Conservative with 60% (+26) of votes.
CON were 2nd on 40% (-15).
No LAB (-8) or GRN (-4) as previous. pic.twitter.com/qgx1OY1jix
— Election Maps UK (@ElectionMapsUK) February 27, 2020
Congratulations to Peter and the team.
Crewe South, Cheshire East
No Liberal Democrat candidate, even though the party fought this ward last time out.
Crewe South (Cheshire East) result:
LAB: 54.1% (-7.5)
CON: 35.8% (+10.3)
GRN: 4.4% (+4.4)
IND (Cartlidge): 3.6% (+3.6)
IND (Silvester): 2.2% (+2.2)Labour HOLD.
— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) February 28, 2020
Hillingdon East, Hillingdon
Chris Hooper stood for the Liberal Democrats in this by-election in Boris Johnson’s constituency. It made for a welcome return to the party contesting the ward after the no-show last time in what many years ago was a Lib Dem held ward. A long way back to go, but that started with finishing ahead of both the Greens and Ukip this time:
Hillingdon East (Hillingdon) result:
CON: 68.8% (+9.1)
LAB: 23.5% (-12.7)
LDEM: 4.1% (+4.1)
GRN: 2.8% (+2.8)
UKIP: 0.8% (+0.8)Conservative HOLD.
— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) February 27, 2020
Clayton and Openshaw, Manchester
The Lib Dem candidate for this Labour seat was Claude-Diele Nsumbu:
Clayton & Openshaw (Manchester) result:
IND: 47.9% (+3.4)
LAB: 43.6% (-1.4)
CON: 4.1% (+0.6)
LDEM: 2.3% (-1.0)
GRN: 2.1% (-1.6)Independent GAIN from Labour.
— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) February 28, 2020
Whittlesford, South Cambridgeshire
A contest caused by the same Conservative councillor resigning as triggered the Duxford contest. James Hobro was the Liberal Democrat candidate for this contest and continued the impressive Lib Dem progress in this part of England:
Whittlesford (South Cambridgeshire) result:
CON: 55.2% (-8.1)
LDEM: 44.8% (+30.3)Conservative HOLD.
No Lab (-16.0) and Grn (-6.2) as prev.
— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) February 28, 2020
Gwersyllt North, Wrexham
Graham Kelly standing for the Lib Dems here made it the first time the party has fought this ward since 2008.
Gwersyllt North (Wrexham) result:
PC: 36.6% (+36.6)
LAB: 16.8% (-10.7)
CON: 15.1% (-5.0)
IND (Davies): 9.9% (+9.9)
IND (McCan): 8.3% (+8.3)
LDEM: 7.9% (+7.9)
IND (Hay): 3.7% (+3.7)
GRN: 1.7% (+1.7)Plaid Cymru GAIN from Independent.
No other Ind(s) (-52.4) as prev.
— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) February 27, 2020
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.
three lessons to learn from this set of results:-
1
‘no candidate’ means you have no chance of building on your core vote, or even finding out who they are
2
we need our President to work with our Regions to get them to up their game and take on responsibility for kick-starting moribund Local Parties so that we avoid ‘no candidate'(unless we have a local electoral strategy).
3
in locations such as Wrexham we need to promote electoral reform, and persuade the council to be a pilot for trial runs of alternative systems. With 8 candidates you need as few as 13% of the votes to win(and only three candidates exceed that), and we all know that you don’t have a ‘mandate’ unless you have 50%. There must be a lot of disquiet in the Wrexham area, worth working on.