There were four principal council elections held on the 4th February. The Tories held one seat. The Lib Dems held one seat but also lost two seats to Labour. There were three Parish council elections reported to ALDC.
Rarely, thankfully, do we have to report on an utter disaster, but that was the case in the Holmewood and Heath by-election in North East Derbyshire. In 2007 two Labour councillors were elected for the ward un-opposed. In fact they had been unopposed for the last 20 years and only Labour had ever been elected in this coal mining and largely council housing renting area. In April 2008 there was a by-election that we won with 42% and a 26 vote majority. Our sitting councillor was disqualified for non-attendance and we failed to stand a candidate to defend the seat. The problem may have come from the ward switching from the North East Derbyshire constituency to Bolsover in the boundary changes but whatever the reason conceding without a fight borders on the politically criminal.
Further bad news came in the form of a loss to Labour in the Queens Park Ward of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council. The Lib Dem’s in Blackburn form part of a joint administration. The council’s weekly bin collections and Housing Market Renewal scheme were popular, its gritting and ensuing bin collection problems were not.
The line was finally drawn at the Whyteleafe Ward of Tandridge District Council in Surrey, where recently appointed PPC David Lee led the party to a successful defence. A general ‘anti’ vote drove the UKIP vote share well beyond the likely return on their limited campaign, and a half-hearted Tory effort failed to register dramatically. The Labour party failed to field a candidate. Creating a legacy of new canvass data, in addition to returning a Liberal Democrat Councillor to Tandridge DC, makes the Lee campaign a bright spot in an otherwise dreary February week.
The only other principal election this week was an unremarkable Labour Hold in the Newchapel Ward of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council. The Tories held off UKIP by only 60 votes, an early indication, perhaps, of the electoral dangers currently facing the Conservatives in 2010’s new political climate.
John Bridges is a Political Officer at the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors.
For detailed by-election results, visit the ALDC website.
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4 Comments
Newchapel wasn’t ‘an unremarkable Labour hold’. It was a Tory hold with a huge swing to Ukip!
UKIP did come second and above Labour in the Euros. It could mean the UKIP will do well in the elections in strong Tory areas?
While I hate to see the Lib Dems losing anything, these results at least have the virtue of reminding us that Labour is far from finished. We must resist the siren calls of those who want to take resources away from defending existing seats (which the media have conned us into thinking we cannot hold) in order to pursue gains from Labour that may not come. The gains we made from Labour in 2005 were attributable to the Iraq War and student tuition fees. While I think we can win a few more seats from Labour (and hold the 2005 gains), the principal battlefield continues to be located in the shires where the enemy is the Conservative Party. Cameron needs to be worreid by the rise in the UKIP vote in an outer London suburb. It’s a mixed blessing for us, I fear.
So where was a lib dem candidate this time? North East Derbyshire DC, Holmewood and Heath back to Nu Liebore again because you failed put a candidate up, when as i heard it, Jan had to stand down due to ill health. but the article says “Our sitting councillor was disqualified for non-attendance and we failed to stand a candidate to defend the seat” so which was it??
Either way we need Labour out, things were done once Jan won here, but labour will do nothing with Tories as only opposition. The fact the Tories got 209 to Labours 373 shows there are many not happy with labour in a largly brain dead vote Labour becuse my dad did, or to keep the benifit check mentality of the locality..
I can only conclude the Lib dems are not really that serious about ever being in government with this kind of hopeless mismanagement. Off course I’d never vote for the lib dems in a general election until they replace their leader with one that understands what the word “democracy” means!!
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[…] Focus. A reminder that the Tories were more united in support of the Iraq war than Labour. 7. By-election news: Where we mess up, we lose by John Bridges on Lib Dem Voice. Some bad local election news in a “dreary February […]