It has been a slightly mixed week for the Lib Dems in by-elections – with both fantastic gains and some tough losses. A huge positive is there were Liberal Democrat candidates in all 5 principal by-elections on Thursday night.
It’s important to stand a candidate in all by-elections and give voters the opportunity to support the Lib Dems – and we did this in every by-election this week. So thank you to everyone who stood for us.
We start the roundup with a superb gain on Guildford Borough Council from the Conservatives. Congratulations to Councillor Richard Morris and the local team for gaining Tillingbourne ward with a 16% increase in the vote.
Guildford BC, Tillingbourne ward
Liberal Democrat (Richard Morris): 636 [46.5%, +16.3%]
Conservative: 293 [21.4%, -15.2%]
Residents for Guildford & Villages: 185 [13.5%, from nowhere]
Green: 168 [12.3%, -20.8%]
Labour: 85 [6.2%, from nowhere]
We were extremely unlucky in Fareham Borough Council as we lost Porchester East ward by just 25 votes. It is always gutting to lose out by such a tiny margin. Thank you the our candidate Ciaran Urry-Tuttiett and the Lib Dem team there for all your hard work.
Fareham BC, Porchester East ward
Conservative: 957 [37.6%, +3.0%]
Liberal Democrat (Ciaran Urry-Tuttiett): 932 [36.6%, -14.2%]
Labour: 379 [14.9%, +4.5%]
Independent: 275 [10.8%, +0.0%]
We were also very unlucky on St Helens Borough Council as Labour held Moss Side ward. In the all out elections of 2022 Labour won their seat by an 881 vote margin over the nearest Lib Dem runner up. But congratulations to our candidate David Kent to narrowing that gap to just 85 votes. A great result!
St Helens BC, Moss Side
Labour: 656 [50.3%, -1.7%]
Liberal Democrat (David Kent): 571 [43.8%, +27.1%]
Conservative: 78 [6.0%, -11.3%]
On Broadland District Council, Labour took Thorpe St Andrew North West ward from the Conservatives. Thank you to Lib Dem candidate Brian Howe for giving voters a Lib Dem option on the ballot paper.
Broadland DC, Thorpe St Andrew North West
Labour: 860 [51.8%, +22.8%]
Conservative: 635 [38.3%, -17.9%]
Liberal Democrat (Brian Howe): 165 [9.9%, -4.9%]
Finally in Wales on Monmouthshire Council the Conservatives held Devauden ward. Thank you to Lib Dem candidate Nick Ramsey for flying the Lib Dem flag there.
Monmouthshire Council, Devauden ward
Conservative: 268 [40.5%, -8.8%]
Labour: 210 [31.8%, +1.1%]
Independent: 119 [18.0%, from nowhere]
Green: 41 [6.2%, -4.0%]
Liberal Democrat (Nick Ramsay): 23 [3.5%, -6.3%]
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.
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4 Comments
It’s also important to note the two Town Council gains from the Conservatives in Beaconsfield, with 55% and 58% of the vote.
Too many Labour and 4th party votes in the Farwhan seat. The National swing to Labour looks like a problem Squeeze, squeeze and Squeeze again
Tristan: regarding Fareham, I gather that the former LD councillor had moved away from the area, but had delayed tendering his resignation, which had caused some local resentment, which the Conservative candidate had been able to exploit. Nevertheless, I can’t help feeling that a well run LD campaign should have been able to save the seat, particularly given the national picture.
On the wider picture, The Tories seem to be Averaging around 20% in the last few days (ignoring the 14% outlier ). They seem to be falling again after a period of stability, perhaps by 1% every 2 or 3 days. How low can they go ?
We seem to be steady around 10%.