Good news to wake up to this morning. The Liberal Democrats have gained not one but TWO Council seats in Gloucester – one each from Labour and the Conservatives. The one from Labour was proper knife edge stuff. Not between us and Labour, who absolutely tanked because, you know, what is the point of them these days? We won by three votes from the Conservatives.
There was a nail biting recount in Podsmead where Sebastian Field triumphed and Ashley Bowkett won in Barnwood.
🚨LD GAIN: Ashley Bowkett GAINS Tory seat in Barnwood ward. That means Barnwood is now Yellow.
Ashley Bowkett, LD: 676
Chris Clee, Lab: 64
Jonathan Ingleby, Green: 59
Fred Ramsey, Con: 496
Peter Sheehy, Brexit Party: 152
Matthew Young, UKIP: 6There was one spoilt ballot paper
— Leigh Boobyer (@LeighBoobyer) July 25, 2019
Here are the changes from last time:
Barnwood (Gloucester) result:
LDEM: 46.5% (+15.1)
CON: 34.1% (-6.0)
BREX: 10.5% (+10.5)
LAB: 4.4% (-6.9)
GRN: 4.1% (-1.3)
UKIP: 0.4% (-11.2)Liberal Democrat GAIN from Conservative.
— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) July 25, 2019
Podsmead (Gloucester) result:
LDEM: 30.0% (+30.0)
CON: 29.6% (-18.5)
LAB: 18.0% (-33.9)
BREX: 16.4% (+16.4)
GRN: 4.3% (+4.3)
UKIP: 1.6% (+1.6)Liberal Democrat GAIN from Labour.
— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) July 25, 2019
There are now 20 Conservatives, nine Labour and nine Liberal Democrats sitting on the authority.
Liberal Democrat Sebastian Field will take over Podsmead and Ashley Bowkett will cover Barnwood. Mr Field returns to local government having previously been councillor for Kingsholm and Wotton.
Council leader Paul James (C, Longlevens) described the results as “disappointing”, while Liberal Democrat leader Jeremy Hilton said the outcome was a “double victory”.
Mr Hilton (Kingsholm and Wotton) said: “This is a double Gloucester victory for the Liberal Democrats. To take a seat from the Conservatives and to take a seat from the Labour party is exceptional.”
These elections mark the first foray of the Brexit Party into local council by-elections.
There was just one other by-election last night, in Hartlepool, where we didn’t have a candidate. Labour held the seat:
Hart (Hartlepool) result:
LAB: 30.5% (+1.3)
INDU: 29.8% (+29.8)
GRN: 16.3% (+12.7)
FBM: 13.8% (+13.8)
UKIP: 9.5% (-17.7)Labour HOLD.
No Independent (-20.3) and Conservative (-19.7) as previous.
— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) July 25, 2019
We did gain a town council seat in Todmorden though…
Todmorden Town Council
298 Matthew Doyle (Lib Dem)
186 Labour pic.twitter.com/1qf37QMIDG— ALDC (@ALDC) July 25, 2019
Congratulations to all our victorious candidates and teams.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
A journey along the Welsh Border in 1963
Recipe for a real change of direction
Day 9304: So Farewell Then, Kier Starmer
How many councillors has Reform UK lost since the May 2026 elections?
National politicians should keep their noses out of the decision-making processes of local councillors
Dennis
Chloe
Slamdac
Nonconformistradical
Mick Taylor
12 Comments
Congratulations to the two Lib Dem winners, but its a shame we had no candidate in Hartlepool. Next week could be interesting – as far as I am aware there are just two local by-elections both of them seats we are defending, though no doubt the results will be overlooked by what happens in Brecon.
Delighted as we should be by the two gains, we should also remember that these results (as well as Labour’s narrow hold in Hartlepool) highlight the weaknesses of First Past the Post. Winner takes all on 30% is hardly the mark of a vibrant democracy.
Well done and absolutely delighted. The tory are still spinning it as the need to get Brexit done but the more intelligent ones are quickly realising the world has moved since the referendum…
No #BorisBounce for the Tories, but a #SwinsonSurge for the Lib Dems 🙂
@GeoffReid – agree with you about winning with 30% uder FPTP, but (a) them’s the rules until we get the power to change them, and (b) it’s 30% that we didn’t get last time as we didn’t stand. For me, it’s a tremendous result, perhaps better than the win with a higher share in Barnwood, which is a ward where we were in strong contention last time. Onward and upward …
Very encouraging to see that our vote outpolled the combined Tory and Brexit party vote in the Barnwood ward in Gloucester, the one we took from the Tories.
Yet another LibDem win in what had been a Labour-Tory marginal with LDs nowhere. While winning on 30% certainly illustrates the shortcomings of FPTP, it also highlights the opportunity at the next general election, which will be held under the same voting system. If we’re at current or better levels in the polls and can get out messaging right, then strong LibDem candidates can and will win Lab-Tory marginals from third place.
I notice that Farage stood in seats where the Lab, Cons,. LibDems stood. Did he get the leave voters from both parties and we got the remain voters? Die hard Lab,Con supporters stuck with their party? An election could come in the autumn and we must have policies that are not only selling the good on remaining in the EU but cover policing economy education etc
It is all going swimmingly, we seem to control the political deep end with Labour scared to get their feet off the bottom|
General Election: hmm, a caveat, there are so many seats where we polled less than 4% last time, where we have no organisation, no council candidates etc. I have said this before and not got published but would does a Labour voter do in such a seat, where last time their party was within 5,000 or less of the winning Conservative, when all they want to do is to get rid of the Con. In reality we have to rely on a real collapse of Labour support into the lower teens, is that probable or realistic? At the same time seats only start to tumble once a party has got 28/29% of the General Election vote. Again is that probable for ourselves. Discuss.
These excellent results and others recently somewhat resemble the elections of the 1920s when Labour overtook the Liberals to become the principal opposition to the Conservatives. (There was often only a 1% difference in those results.) Maybe that position will now be reversed ?
Its interesting to look at the latest Poll, the only one since the Leader changes, so far.
Electoral Calculus predicts that would give us less than 100 MPs in a Parliament still dominated by Tories & Labour.
Now assume that we could form an Alliance with The Greens & Tigs, that would put on 33% which would give us 350 MPs & Jo Swinson as The PM.
Which option to go with ?
I have no idea if serious Talks about an Alliance are happening, if not then they should be.
” Barnwood is now Yellow.”
The Tories call us yellow as a term of abuse.
Our colour is GOLD for first place.
Tell your printer you want Pantine Gold.