So we’ve done it! I will never forget that shot of Shaun Roberts and Dave McCobb on Sky News. They were smiling, and looking very smug indeed.
And Jane walking in and looking so happy.
It’ll be a while before I stop crying.
Here’s the result in full:
Davies C Conservative 12,401
Davies T Labour 1,680
Dodds J Liberal Democrat 13,826
Parkinson D Brexit 3381
Phillips L UKIP 242
Pink, Lily the 334
We have done it!!!
Brecon & Radnorshire, result:
LDEM: 43.5% (+14.3)
CON: 39.0% (-9.6)
BREX: 10.5% (+10.5)
LAB: 5.3% (-12.5)
MRLP: 1.0% (+1.0)
UKIP: 0.8% (-0.6)— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) August 2, 2019
Jane’s speech, paraphrased:
People in Brecon and Radnorshire have sent a powerful message.
34 years ago a Liberal victory sparked a liberal revival.
People demand better.
The message from me and our new leader – is that you can have better, and better with the Liberal Democrats. This victory must be a turning point for not just for b and r but for our whole country too.
There is no time for tribalism when our country is faced with the threat of a no deal brexit.
My first act as MP will be to find Boris wherever he is hiding and tel him to rule out no deal Brexit now.
This is a time when people who share liberal values must work together which is why I want to thank the Green Party and Plaid Cymru to back me this time.
It is an immense privilege to follow in the footsteps of Roger Willians and Richard Livesey.
I am so glad I went down and spent those 4 days in Llandrindod Wells. LDV team members spent about 18 days there in all.
If you want to get to know Jane and what makes her tick better, here is my interview with her from two weeks ago on Saturday.
And now the by-election circus moves to Sheffield Hallam. How amazing would it be to get Laura Gordon elected too.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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20 Comments
Superb result. Well done to all involved.
Typing error shows the result mixed up and Jane with 3826 rather than 13826. Took a moment to work it out!
Great result.
Now back to sleep here in Llandrindod Wells. Glad we came. Sheffield next.
Due to the words “Liberal Democrat” somehow having landed in the midst of the number, Jane Dodds’ winning figure is misstated; it should be
Dodds J Liberal Democrat 13,826
not
Dodds J 1 Liberal Democrat 3,826.
Nonetheless, congratulations to Jane, and may the revival of the Liberal Democrats continue!
Slight worry that we’d probably have lost if there had been a Brexit/Con pact. If a GE does get called any time soon, it suggests those two parties need to have a good think about how to approach it.
Thanks all for pointing out our naughty “1”. This has now been corrected.
Congratulations. As a side note, the Loonies beat the loonies.
woooooooooo-hoooooooooooooo!
Jane wins on 43.5% of the vote & gets elected . Brexit is won by 52% of the electorate votes & is ignored by the LibDems who wish to deny the people their winning vote . Pretty much sums up politics in this country .
Congratulations, Jane rightly thanks Plaid, Cymru, the Greens, Change etc who even with a squeeze might have contributed up to 3%.
Yes, Con+Brexit would overtake us, but with Davies C, would no more add together than Davies T would to us. Nevertheless with recent attention on how Brexit would harm Welsh farmers the pro Brexit vote is worryingly high. When tangibly harmed by Brexit, will people continue to support it?
A turnout of almost 60% is high for a by-election. Jane’s win takes us close to the 46.2% of 2010. With another election perhaps ten or so weeks away, this is what Jane has to aim for.
TERRY – Jane’s 43.5% of the vote was split between 6 choices on the ballot paper; Leave’s 51.9% was split between 2 choices (and that was 37 months ago).
Oh dear, Terry. Not even a word of congratulations just more carping. How very churlish
Terry, you mean the Lib-Dems exercising their democratic right in a democracy to campaign against what many now regard as a flawed vote?
Some people really need to read up on the difference between democracy and dictatorship.
Really annoyed at this result. I had £10 on the turnout being 60%. What the hell were the knock up team doing? 59.7%!!
Well done by the way.
It is normal to thank the Returning Officer, who is obviously bilingual, but he gave the numbers for the top four candidates only in Welsh leaving Sky News to translate.
He did give the result of UKIP and the candidate for the Monster Raving Looney Party in English, but only in English.
Although their party policy is not to win elections, according to the memoirs of their founder, the late Screaming Lord Sutch, they made history when their candidate in a parliamentary by-election on Merseyside got more votes than the candidate for David Owen’s party (which we called SDP2) causing their main financial backer to withdraw support. David Sainsbury became a Labour minister in the Lords and was obviously displeased with the Owenites’ result.
It is now possible to resign a life peerage, but David Owen has not yet done so.
‘Lord’ Sutch was never a member of the House of Lords. He stood in more by-elections for the Commons than anybody else, including the Ribble Valley by-election, of which he said that he kept meeting Tories who were telling him they were going to vote Liberal Democrat (to the distress of the Tory candidate who had supported Margaret Thatcher’s poll tax). The Tory chairman (Chris Patten) was given an early bath.
david 2nd Aug ’19 – 8:45am:
I asked Richard Livsey MP, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Livsey,_Baron_Livsey_of_Talgarth
whether having four candidates to choose from increased the turnout.
He said that the constituency had always been high voting.
A very nice man, but something of an understatement.
84% had been the average in 1950.
Turnout can be increased by offering everyone someone to vote for, as in STV, which is mostly used in Northern Ireland (to protect minorities) and in local elections in Scotland because Lib Dems insisted on it when in government in the Scottish Parliament.
Dan MB
Yes, slight worry but today is not the day to worry about it! Today we celebrate getting Jane into Parliament.!!!
Terry you are assuming all those who voted Lib Dem are Remain, all Cons voters are Leave, It does not appear to be as simple as that. Polls say 20%+ Con voters are Remain , 12% of Lib Dem voters are Leave while Labour has 20% Leave and some Brexit voters are just protesting generally. We really will not know the actual overall truth until there is another Referendum.
@Terry
1) The referdum was non-binding.
2) a lot had change in 3 years.
3) Nobody voted for no deal.
It wasn’t 52% of the total electorate though was it. EU citizens like my hard working Polish neighbour were denied a vote (though they can vote in local elections) whereas Commonwealth citizens were. 16/17 year olds were denied a vote unlike in the Scottish referendum. So your brand of democracy is about excluding people not including them, I don’t call that democratic. Then there are the people who didn’t vote either way.