This week saw the first principal council by-elections for a month with 3 seats being contested – one each in England, Scotland and Wales.
In Hillrise ward on the London Borough of Islington we finished a strong third with over 15% of the vote – increasing our share and jumping ahead of the Green Party compared to the previous election. Well done and thank you to our candidate Imogen Wall. Interestingly this very seat had been contested in a by-election just a few months ago in May. Labour held but with a huge fall in their vote.
Islington LBC, Hillrise
Labour: 968 (43.3%, -19.5%)
Independent: 539 (24.1%, new)
Liberal Democrats (Imogen Wall): 350 (15.7%, +2.9%)
Green Party: 322 (14.4%, -10%)
Independent: 54 (2.4%, new)
In Stirling Council we stood in the Dunblane and Bridge of Allan by-election. Thank you to Dick Moerman for standing in this vacancy. This is the third by-election in this ward since March 2023 and Dick has stood each time. A great commitment. The last time this particular seat was fought in 2022 there was no Lib Dem candidate so this is great progress. Labour held onto the seat – but relied on second preference to do so on the fifth round of counting.
Stirling Council, Dunblane and Bridge of Allan
Conservative: 1,143 (27.9%, -1,2%)
Labour: 952 (23.3%, +7.3%)
SNP: 770 (18.8%, -5.2%)
Green Party: 659 (16%, -5.5%)
Liberal Democrats (Dick Moerman): 345 (8.4%, new)
Independent: 225 (5.5%, new)
The final by-election took place in Caerphilly in Aberbargoed and Bargoed ward. The was no Lib Dem candidate in this election and it could not have been closer with Labour holding the ward by a single vote ahead of Plaid Cymru!
Caerphilly Council, Aberbargoed and Bargoed
Labour: 354 (46.2%, -1.2%)
Plaid Cymru: 353 (46.1%, +7.1%)
Green Party: 59 (7.7%, new)
We are heading into a busy period for council by-elections with many being triggered by the resignation of councillors newly elected as MPs. Keep up to date on ALDC’s forthcoming by-elections page.
A full summary of all by-election results can be found on the ALDC by-election results page here. These now include our by-election wins held on General Election polling day on 4 July.
* Charles Quinn is Campaigns Organiser for ALDC and a local councillor in Hull.
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7 Comments
We need to do a much better job of fighting local by elections and bringing in more activists to do so.
I’ve been in London a few times in the past month and could have helped out in the Islington by-election if I’d known about it.
Indeed I don’t believe I’ve even been contacted about local by elections within my own region (south central) for quite a long time.
Even if someone were so keen to help that one continually searched the internet for upcoming by elections it would be rare for local parties to make info on who to contact publicly available and easy to find.
Of course this does depend on whether the local party is really taking the election seriously, but places like hillrise ward in which we appear to have held at least one seat from 1999-2014, in a council we controlled from 1999-2010 are the sorts of places that we really ought to be throwing a lot of effort into rebuilding.
But labour’s hold on such places is such that it will initially need a cross regional effort.
Given that the beacons weren’t lit in Islington, the result is quite promising. The second placed independant was Corbyn backed which clearly damaged the Greens as well as Labour.
Naturally, many of the upcoming by-elections due to councillors becoming Labour MPs are in Camden. Similar demographics but no Corbyn. Do we have a target?
Completely agree with David on this and something I have been asking SE Region to do for years for my patch. I have no idea when by elections are taking place in my surrounding area. But would be more than happy to help like I am sure many activist’s.
Go to the ALDC local by-elections’ page and you will find details of upcoming by-elections there.
@Hugh Young
I’d say at this point we really need the federal party to step in if regional parties aren’t bothering. Both in making sure members from not just that region but also neighbouring regions are are contacted, along with with pressing parties to actually fight to win in every by election.
This is a perfectly reasonable thing to ask since the small size of a council ward combined with very low turnout should make even no hope wards winnable if one mobilised a very large number of activists.
The only situations where we don’t need to do this are when the local party is already strong enough to carry it by themselves. But for developing local parties these are massive opportunities that we keep squandering.
@Chris Moore as I alluded to before most members aren’t going to regularly if ever look at the ALDC website and even those that do won’t usually find any contact info on there.
Perhaps LDV should do a regular upcoming by elections update for those local parties that are interested in getting help.
@Peter Davies
Looks like one of those Camden wards is the former lib dem ward of Kilburn in the Hampstead constituency. I remember that was one of our top target seats back in 2010, which we came within 900 votes of winning.
If pur party is at all serious about recovering in labour facing areas we’d throw everything we have at that ward! But again, no idea if that’s actually happening or how to get involved if it is.
Hello David, I take your point and agree that fighting all local by-elections makes sense.
Tel no for Camden LibDems: 02086173264.
I believe they are running a campaign to win.
Vote 2012 UK is a very good source in advance for all forthcoming local by-elections. Someone from ALDC should read this, publish details on their page and include local party contact details. This would be a small step forward.