Political

Conservatives gain seat from Lib Dems after Ukip no-show

Four principal authority council by-elections this week, with three having a Liberal Democrat candidate. The fourth, in Scotland, is a ward that the party didn’t stand in last time out either.

The four also saw a rare Liberal Democrat loss to the Conservatives after a recount and helped by the absence of Ukip this time:

Commiserations to Jacques Olmo and the team for getting so close but not quite making it in this contest in Michael Gove’s constituency.

Thank you to Sharron Honey for standing for the Liberal Democrats.

That’s the first time the Liberal Democrats have finished as high as second in this ward since 2006 – welcome progress.

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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3 responses to “Conservatives gain seat from Lib Dems after Ukip no-show”

  1. Frimley.UKIP votes will always go to Conservatives.They have an unwritten loyalty pact to maintain their aim of Brexit. Labour standing took votes off us.We were caught with a double whammy.This is the problem of opposition competing with each other.Research will have to be done FAST when each campaign is called (or earlier) to come to some sort of agreement with Labour (or others).

    Reply

    • I agree with Nigel Hunter. Maybe all constituency LibDem party organisations need to be asked to draw up a strategy and plan for tactical voting ASAP so that we are not caught out when a by-election emerges. The lead time may be quite long especially where several parties may be involved. Also we should cast the net wide to generate as broad a coalition as possible – Lab, Gteen, Ratepayers, and where appropriate nationalist parties.

      Reply

  2. to be considered a ‘national’ party, we need to stand a candidate at every opportunity.. every opportunity(except parishes and non-party roles).. this is the only way to establish a core vote, upon which to build. You then canvass after the election to find those core voters in order to progress next time.
    The right tactic, in all but rare occasions, is not to stand down our candidate(or expect others to in favour of us, which Labour are particularly unreliable at), but to have a no poster/no leaflet pact to allow the likely winner to be obvious.
    We also need to change party policy to enable our activists to support the likeliest winner against the Tory without the risk of being expelled.

    Reply

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