The first principal council by elections since our amazing General Election result too place this week. Four elections were held. We stood a Lib Dem candidate in all 4 and moved forwards in a number of places.
We had a tough defence in Argyll and Bute Council, in Kintyre and the Islands ward. We had finished 3rd and picked up a councillor in the ward the 2022 local elections. This time, despite increasing our share of first preference votes, we were unable to hold the seat. Thank you so much to Douglas MacDonald for standing for us here. The SNP gained the seat in the fifth round of counting.
Argyll and Bute Council, Kintyre and the Islands
SNP: 728 (45%, +15%)
Conservative: 322 (19%, +9.5%)
Independent: 322 (19%, new)
Liberal Democrats (Douglas MacDonald): 281 (17%, +1%)
Freedom Alliance: 25 (1%, new)
There were two by-elections in Newham LBC on Thursday, and we moved forwards in both.
In Little Ilford ward we finished an impressive 3rd place and increased our vote share as all other parties (Conservative, Labour and Green) saw their vote share fall. Well done and thank you to Akm Rahman for standing for us in this election and improving our performance.
Thank you to James Alan-Rumsby for standing in Beckton ward, which we did not contest in the previous election. A great effort to stand a candidate and make sure Lib Dem votes are counted.
Labour held both seats, despite a strong challenge from a local residents party.
Newham LBC, Little Ilford
Labour: 884 (39%, -11.9%)
Newham Independents: 738 (32.6%, new)
Liberal Democrats (Akm Rahman): 274 (12.1%, +0.2%)
Independent: 163 (7.2%, -8.2%)
Conservative: 104 (4.6%, -7.3%)
Green Party: 103 (4.5%, -2.4%)
Newham LBC, Beckton
Labour: 597 (38.7%, -9.7%)
Newham Independents: 476 (30.9%, new)
Green Party: 228 (14.8%, -15.7%)
Conservative: 144 (9.3%, -5.4%)
Liberal Democrats (James Alan-Rumsby): 96 (6.2%, new)
In Oxford City Council, thank you to Kathy Norman for flying the flag in the Marston ward by-election, which was held by the Green Party.
Oxford City Council, Martson
Green Party: 640 (34.5%, -2.5%)
Independent Oxford Alliance: 596 (32.1%, new)
Labour: 495 (26.7%, -18%)
Conservative: 70 (3.8%, -11.1%)
Liberal Democrats (Kathy Norman): 55 (3%, -0.6%)
A full summary of all results can be found on the ALDC by-elections page here.
* Charles Quinn is Campaigns Organiser for ALDC and a local councillor in Hull.
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Lib Dems in the King's birthday honours 2025
A journey along the disused Market Harborough to Newark railway
Friends of Blackness Summer Fair tomorrow! #dundeewestend
Is Labour's comprehensive spending review starting to unravel?
Greg Hyde
David Sparrow
Paul
Nonconformistradical
6 Comments
That Oxford result is a Green gain, from Labour.
TBF that first Newham result actually is impressive since the greens have recently come ahead of us by default in urban areas and Newham isn’t even one of those places where we ever did well, not even post Iraq.
According to Wikipedia we had one councillor in the 90s and thats it.
Argyll & Bute had successive Liberal/Lib Dem MPs for twenty eight years as recently as between 1987 and 2015.
@Paul: the Oxford result isn’t a Green gain. A Green councillor resigned to cause the by-election. (S/he was first elected in 2022.)
It’s a three member ward elected over a four year cycle. The percentage changes are compared to the result in May 2024, when Labour took the seat from the Greens.
Please pass on my congratulations to Akm Rahman for the improved performamce – from Rif Winfield, former Liberal Councillor for Little Ilford Ward.
David Le Grice, you need to go back further. We won Little Ilford Ward in Newham back in 1982 and held two seats there until 1986, with much higher turnout of votes.