The dust has settled from last Thursday, and Liberal Democrats have posted 75 net gains on the day. But a mere number hardly does justice to all the teams behind each result. So here are some shoutouts. In alphabetical order. Well done everyone, brilliant work.
Apologies for any errors – this is coming from local council websites, some of which are easier to use than others. If it isn’t clear which seats are gains are I’ve just given a total, but please shoutout in the comments if you know.
Barnsley +1
The marvellous Hannah Kitching becomes the first Liberal Democrat on Barnsley council for a decade. To win from a standing start to win with a majority of 778 is remarkable. I confess to helping. Hannah also polled a creditable 10.6% in the south yorkshire mayoral election on the same day, beating my 10.05% in the Police Commissioner election of 2016.
Bolton +1
David Wilkinson in Westhoughton South
Calderdale +1
The Calderdale website is not showing swings/gains, so this could be Amanda Parsons-Hulse in Warley or Marilyn Greenwood in Greetland and Stainland. (The other will be a hold.)
Cambridge +1
5 wins with 1 net gain.
Camden +2
3 wins with 2 net gains.
Cheltenham +3
17 wins with 3 net gains.
Cherwell +1
Somebody is the first Lib Dem councillor on Cherwell. Well done. Unfortunately the council website is only publishing one ward result.
Elmbridge +1
3 wins with 1 net gain.
Gosport +4
9 wins with 4 net gains. There are 20 wards here altogether, so this looks like a prospect for taking control before long.
Haringey +6
15 wins with 6 net gains. (7 according to the Guardian).
7 wins with 1 net gain on new boundaries.
Hull +9
24 wins with 9 notional net gains (7 actual) on new boundaries. A phenomenal result. So embarrassing to the Labour Council they don’t appear to have published it on the website.
39 wins with 21 net gains, as mentioned earlier.
Liverpool +3
Carole Mary Storey in Childwall, Liz Makinson in Church and Kris Brown in Woolton
Manchester +1
Again not apparent on the website, but it was Didsbury West and Richard Kilpatrick.
Merton +5
6 wins with 5 net gains.
Mole Valley +2
6 wins with 2 net gains, taking the council from Con to NOC.
Standing ovations to all the candidates and teams behind these results and commiserations to all those who worked just as hard and fell short, you did us proud too.
The rest of the alphabet follows here. Do fill in the blanks.
* Joe Otten was the candidate for Sheffield Heeley in June 2017 and Doncaster North in December 2019 and is a councillor in Sheffield.
4 Comments
In Calderdale the gain was Amanda Parsons-Hulse who took the third seat in Warley Ward. The hold was Marilyn Greenwood who scored the best result since the coalition with a 700 plus majority, only 2 votes short of 50%. We lost one seat to the Tories in 2015 and intend to get it back in 2019.
We have run Gosport before …
The first Lib Dem victory in the Cherwell District Council was in the Kidlington West Ward for Alaric David Hammond Rose.
Next door at a by-election in Aylesbury Vale District Council, Lib Dem Scott Raven gained the Quainton ward from the Conservatives.
I’m interested to know more about Bolton. Though we ‘only’ held our existing seat and gained one more, we did so with huge majorities and we also increased our vote very substantially in a few other wards. I read somewhere that we had increased our vote in the Bolton West constituency from 2% to 30%, or something similar. Frustratingly I can’t find that reference now, but the council website shows there are 5 wards where we did very well while in the other (eastern?) wards we recorded our usual (generally poor) results, which suggests very effective targeting.
http://www.bolton.gov.uk/website/news/Documents/results_2018.pdf
I don’t know the place at all so I’m not exactly sure what’s going on but am intrigued. The Bolton LD website hasn’t been updated for months, which seems even more odd. If we did get a 28% increase from such a low base in a weak area I reckon we should be shouting about it. Is there anyone from the local party who can tell us more?
Three losses in Colchester (next door to us), but in Wivenhoe, part of Colchester Borough, a Labour seat captured by 399 votes by Andrea Luxford-Vaughan. Hard work by Essex university students a factor.