Liberal Democrat gain from Conservatives in Penrith by-election

Six council by-elections on Thursday, following up the trio on Tuesday. Disappointingly there were only four Liberal Democrat candidates for the seat seats this time around. Although one missing candidate was in a ward the party last stood in back in 2003, the other was in a ward the party contested as recently as 2019.

First in is a huge swing from Labour in Sunderland, in a ward where since 2010 the Lib Dems have always either finished last or not stood:

Congratulations and commiserations to John Lennox on the team for that huge swing, coming so close to winning.

Next up, one better with a Liberal Democrat gain:

Congratulations to Roger Burgin and the team, continuing an excellent run of recent by-election results in Cumbria for the Liberal Democrats. All the better news as Eden Council is run by a Lib Dem-led coalition with a small majority – now an increased majority.

(The ward is a multi-member ward with the Conservatives having won one of the seats last time. Hence the vote share changes above alongside this being a Lib Dem gain.)

Thank you to Robert Pinsker for being the Lib Dem candidate.

This is sort-of-a-hold and sort-of-a-gain as the departing councillor, although elected as a Liberal Democrat, had been sitting as an independent. Congratulations to Michael and the team.

The final two results are the ones without Lib Dem candidates:

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. But this swapping of town councils seats in Wells did catch my notice:

Commiserations to Gordon, congratulations to Amanda and thanks to both of them and their teams.

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