Some excellent news from Cambridgeshire, as reported on the NE Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats website:
“There was a shock defeat for the Tories in the March North town council by-election on Thursday 19th September 2013. Lib Dem candidate Stephen Court stormed to victory gaining almost 50% of the votes cast and a majority of 156 over the defeated Conservative candidate. Stephen becomes the first Lib Dem councillor on March Town Council and breaks a stranglehold that the Tories had on the March North ward for many years. He is a local campaigner for improved rail connections, open spaces, decent bus services and local community facilities. Stephen ran a strong campaign earlier this year when the council wanted to railroad through development on the open space at Estover. And he shamed the town council into agreeing to issue voting cards at every election. "I would like to thank everyone who supported me during my campaign. I am delighted to have been elected as a town councillor for March North and look forward to using my new role to get a better deal for March and its residents.”
In Oxford, meanwhile, Liberal Democrat candidate Tim Bearder finished just 37 votes behind the winning Labour candidates. Technically this was a Labour gain from the Lib Dems: it’s a two member ward and the by-election was for the seat we won in 2010. When the ward was contested in 2012, however, Labour comfortably beat the Lib Dems (who finished third) by more than 150 votes. However frustrating this year’s close run might have been for the local team, and perhaps the rest of us can feel a bit guilty if we didn’t help them call voters on the day, they should take heart from the fact that they have made a massive improvement on the 2012 result. In one of the most challenging wards for the party in Oxford – North ward has a large number of students – we leapfrogged the Tories to come second and are now in a very good position to win the seat in 2014.
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8 Comments
Some more By-election results from yesterday
Canterbury City – Seasalter:
Ukip 644, C 522, Lab 307, Lib Dem 147, Green 54. (May 2011 – Three seats C 1681, 1610, 1538, Lab 773, 707, 698, Lib Dem 353, 292, 275.
May 2 2013 by-election – C 789, Ukip 706, Lab 427, Lib Dem 93, Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts 41).
Ukip gain from C. Swing 10.2 per cent C to Lab.
Dudley Borough – Coseley East:
Lab 1053, Ukip 478, C 190, BNP 120, Green 33, National Front 16 . (May 2012 – Lab 1366, C 468, Ukip 430, National Front 177, Green 71).
Lab hold. Swing 3.4 per cent Lab to Ukip.
East Hampshire District – Four Marks and Medstead:
C 749, Ukip 348, Lab 119, Green 73. (May 2011 – Two seats C 1729, 1703, Lib Dem 682, Lab 228, 184).
C hold.Swing 4.5 per cent C to Lab.
Oxford City – North:
Lab 367, Lib Dem 330, Green 262, C 100. (May 2012 – Lab 516, Green 385, Lib Dem 353, C 291).
Lab gain from Lib Dem. Swing 3.5 per cent Lab to Lib Dem.
Woking Borough – Maybury and Sheerwater:
C 1057, Lab 833, Ukip 255, Lib Dem 252. (May 2012 – Lib Dem 1088, Lab 1072, C 685, Ukip 345).
C gain from Lib Dem. Swing 23.1 per cent Lib Dem to C.
Labour seems to be doing ok whith the UKIP vote ripping into the Conservatives
What on earth happened to Liberal Democrats in Woking though, The Libdem vote collapsed.
“What on earth happened to Liberal Democrats in Woking though, The Libdem vote collapsed.”
The Lib Dem elected last year had been disqualified for corrupt practices:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-24143939
@Chris
Thanks for that. I just wondered what the explanation was.
I am glad that there is one, I would have worried if that kind of swing from LD to Con was able to be replicated elsewhere.
I might not be the biggest champion towards the Libdems lol, But I don’t want to see them losing big like that to the Tories.
Congratulations to all who produced a good win on March Town Council but the results elsewhere aren’t that great are they? A loss to Labour in Oxford (despite a swing back to us since May 2012); a loss to the Tories in Woking; 4th place in both Woking & Canterbury and no candidate at all in Dudley or East Hampshire.
Sadly not much sign of the usual post-Conference ‘bounce’, and not much sign of it in the latest YouGov polls which have us neck & neck with UKIP on 11%.
A bit of a post-Conference reality check.
The Woking result (or what caused it) merits some detailed discussion but not here.
Tony
Hi Peter – you are right that it is worrying that we didn’t even stand in East Hants.
In Oxford, however, we are delighted with our result. Getting a good second in a ward where the Greens were second to Labour last time, and where both of them fought strong campaigns, was a good result.
I don’t know if we usually get a ‘conference bounce’ but having a by-election on the Thursday of Glasgow conference meant our campaign was heavily depleted for most of the last week.
A big thank you to everyone who did help.
The March North result is excellent in a seat that mirrors the Fenland Council seat due in 2014 and could strongly affect the County seat in 2016. Congratulations to Stephen Court and the Fenland team who have fought this area 3 times at least in the last 3 years. Interesting that UKIP, which won a raft of County seats in the Fenland area last May, did not stand. Looking back to Clement Freud’s time I remember Labour had a lot of success in this seat which was adjacent to the old railway goods yards.
Small corrections to Peter’s comments. He is correct that the March North town ward has the same boundaries as the three member Fenland District Council ward and the County division, however they come up in 2015 and 2017 respectively.
The town council seats were not even fought in 2011, the district seat was and we were third behind Labour. Then in February this year there was a town council by-election in which we were just 3 votes behind the Tories. In the county election in May we were pushed into third place and down to 20% with UKIP coming second.
And yes we are very pleased with the result.