As I write we have made a net increase of 44 councillors. The Tories have lost 272 and these have been transferred across the parties with a sizable chunk going to Independents. We have retained control of 6 councils, adding Three Rivers, Watford and Gosport to Winchester, Eastleigh and Hull reported earlier.
I have been watching West Oxfordshire, Brentwood and Wokingham. In West Oxfordshire we are now the largest party but without overall control. In Brentwood, where all the council seats were up for election, Lib Dems increased theirs by 1 while the Tories lost 2, but that wasn’t quite enough to overtake the Tories – however it has gone into NOC. We are still awaiting results in Wokingham.
Again – do add further news in the comments.
* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.
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8 Comments
Wokingham has not started well
@Robert Sayer – We currently hold 18 out of the 36 seats declared, so that looks quite healthy to me. 18 more to come.
Wokingham has finished declaring. The LibDems finished 1 seat short of an overall majority.
LibDems 27 (+1) Conservatives 19 (-3) Labour 8 (+3) Independent 0 (-1)
Tunbridge Wells council results are interesting.
@Peter Parsons
That’s odd, how come the BBC is reporting that we lost 2 seats in Wokingham and labour has gained 5?
@David LG. Yes, there do seem to be two versions of the truth about Wokingham! But the final result is definitely LD 27, Con 19, Lab 8. The discrepancy is over the gains and losses from before. The 2023 results were LD 25, Con 22, Lab 5, Ind 1, so it looks like an error on the part of the BBC, although I am wondering if this was based on the last time those particular seats were contested.
BBC error. Not infrequent.
There was also their claim, widely repeated, that Labour gained three seats from the LDs in Hull. Forgetting to mention that LDs gained one back from Labour. So net change of 2.
My guess is that they simply swallowed whole the Labour PR – LDs on notice” on the Hull result. And didn’t bother doing an independent check.
BBC coverage really poor overall. Analysis feeble.