Yesterday, Labour gained a seat from the Lib Dems in Burnley and held a seat in the London Borough of Southwark.
Burnley BC, Rosegrove with Lowerhouse:
Lab 521 (43.1; +11.8)
BNP 288 (23.8; +5.5)
LD Kate Mottershead 261 (21.6; -11.8)
Con 81 (6.7; -10.2)
Ind 58 (4.8; +4.8)
Majority 233
Turnout 25%
Lab gain from LD
Percentage change is since May 2010
Southwark LBC, Brunswick Park:
Lab 1981 (65.1; +13.3)
LD Kate Heywood 630 (20.7; -2.0)
Green 231 (7.6; -6.9)
Con 129 (4.2; -6.7)
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition 70 (2.3; +2.3)
Majority 1351
Turnout 34.2%
Lab hold
Percentage change is since May 2010
See the ALDC website for full by-election results and commentary.
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3 Comments
I fear for the number of BNP councillors we may start seeing after May. With Labour still very much a party of the establishment, anybody that refuses to vote for an establishment party may turn to the BNP.
Hope I can reassure you Richy. Rosegrove with Lowerhouse is one of the BNP’s strongest wards nationally, it’s elected a BNP councillor in the past. The BNP have consistently polled well there with 30.3% in 2006, 30.7% in 2007 and 31.0% in 2008 before dropping to 18.4% in 2010. The interesting thing is that the number of BNP votes was very similar in all four elections, 555, 489, 491, 509, with only the fact that there was a higher than normal turnout coinciding with GE2010 diluting the BNP support.
Given that council by-elections have very poor turnouts, another BNP performance of around 500 votes would have had a very strong chance of winning the seat so it’s credit to Bea Foster, Kate Mottershead and their teams for keeping the BNP vote so relatively low.
Yes, the BNP result is interpreted locally as ‘holding steady’.
On the other hand, the Labour result will make them extremely happy and the LD result is a very poor performance. Washing all the dirty linen here is probably not appropriate but I think it can be summed up as failing deliver the “end to broken promises”.