This week saw 4 by-elections, with 3 Liberal Democrat candidates. We get to celebrate one hold, one gain, and one ward having a Lib Dem candidate where there was none last time around.
In Lewes, the Lib Dems have held Newhaven North, where the outgoing councillor had previously switched to independent. Congratulations to Cllr Corina Watts and the team, who increased vote share, whilst holding off a Reform challenge.
Lewes District Council, Newhaven North
Liberal Democrats (Corina Watts): 697 (51.7%, +4.1)
Reform UK: 389 (28.9%, new)
Green Party: 122 (9.1%, +1.8)
Conservative: 59 (4.4%, -14.2)
Independent: 57 (4.2%, -22.2)
Labour: 23 (1.7%, new)
Liberal Democrats HOLD
Meanwhile, in Maldon, Cllr Sarah Dodsley again held off a Reform challenge to gain from the Maldon District Independent Group, in a ward where the Lib Dems hold the other seat. Congratulations to Sarah and the team!
Maldon District Council, Maldon West
Liberal Democrats (Sarah Dodsley): 573 (41.5%, +6.8)
Reform UK: 488 (35.3%, new)
Conservative: 204 (14.8%, -2.6)
Maldon District Inds: 83 (6.0%, -28.5)
Green Party: 33 (2.4%, new)
Liberal Democrats GAIN from Maldon District Independent Group
In Wales this week, we were on the ballot in Lliedi, where we had not been last time. Thanks are due to Jon Burree and the team in Carmarthenshire for flying the flag for the Liberal Democrats.
Carmarthenshire County Council UA, Lliedi
Reform UK: 568 (42.6%, new)
Labour: 312 (23.4%, -34.9)
Independent: 116 (8.7%, new)
Plaid Cymru: 107 (8.0%, new)
Conservative: 93 (7.0%, -8.7)
Independent: 86 (6.5%, new)
Liberal Democrats (Jon Burree): 41 (3.1%, new)
Gwlad: 9 (0.7%, new)
Reform UK GAIN from Labour
The week’s other by-election, in Canvey Island, did not see a Lib Dem candidate.
Castle Point Borough Council, Canvey Island Winter Gardens
Reform UK: 712 (53.1%, new)
Conservative: 233 (17.3%, +1.3)
Canvey Island Inds: 200 (14.9%, -22.7)
Labour: 131 (9.8%, -2.8)
Green Party: 67 (5.0%, -6.1)
Reform UK GAIN from Canvey Island Independent Party
Thank you to all of our candidates, agents, and campaign teams.
A full summary of these results, and all other principal council by-elections, can be found on the ALDC by-elections page here.
* Chris Ward is the Campaigns and Communications Intern for ALDC
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11 Comments
Reform are now a thing in most by elections. Urban, Rural, Scotland, Wales etc.
Standing up to Reform (rather than half-heartedly copying their messages) is currently good for Lib Dems as well as being the right thing to do – not a bad combination!
For those interested in more than one week’s results here is the data for the last fifty local by-elections up to the end of May. In terms of %Votes Reform are in second place for the first time, but look at who is in first place. My data goes back to the 1970s and this is the first time ever that Conservatives and Labour are in third and fourth place.
Percentage Vote Share:
Liberal Democrats 25.95%, Reform 23.32%, Conservatives 20.85%, Labour 16.15%, Greens 9.44%, Others 4.29%
Con/Lab combined vote share of 37% is the lowest ever.
Gains and losses are:
Reform: Net gain of nineteen: 19 gains, 0 held, 0 lost
Conservatives: Net gain of two: 6 gains, 1 held, 4 lost
Lib Dems: No change: 3 gains, 16 held, 3 lost
Greens: No change: 0 gains, 0 held, 0 lost
Independents: Net loss of one: 2 gains, 0 held, 3 lost
Labour: Net loss of nineteen: 0 gains, 4 held, 19 lost
Others: Net loss of one: 0 gains, 0 held, 1 lost
Seats Won:
Liberal Democrats won 19 seats, Reform 19 seats, Conservatives 7, Labour 4, Independents 2. (This does not total 50 as there was a double vacancy in one ward).
This data is for the most recent 50 by-elections in England & Wales (1st to 29th May). Parish/Town councils are not included.
Congratulations Corina, you deserve this win. Lucky us.
Good Luck
well done to the Lds who seem, south of the Severn, to be holding up well against reform. I think the national parties in Wales and Acotland are doing similar work. However none seems to be taking recombine and in social media – please anyone, take a look at the mains stream media, youtube, the rabid and radicalised far right wing media (tv and papers) and tell me that coverage is proportionate. Then take a look at almost any FB page, ‘X’ (if you can bear it) and the like and tell me the far right isn’t arranging to swamp just about every post. Two questions of all parties: (i) when Lab, LDs and Nats together have an overwhelming majority in the Uk parliament, why is nothing being done to control this situation (you don’t have to be a free speech purist to want to ban pseudonyms or false names on FB, not a snowflake to say that someone should decide whether other platforms are now just a radicalising agent for the right) eg representation of parties in the media?
If the answers come too late … it really will be too late
well done to the Lds who seem, south of the Severn, to be holding up well against reform. I think the national parties in Wales and Scotland are doing similar work. However none seems to be taking on reform in the social media – please anyone, take a look at the mainstream media, youtube, the rabid and radicalised far right wing media (tv and papers) and tell me that coverage is proportionate. Then take a look at almost any FB page, ‘X’ (if you can bear it) and the like and tell me the far right isn’t arranging to swamp just about every post. Two questions of all parties: (i) when Lab, LDs and Nats together have an overwhelming majority in the UK parliament, why is nothing being done to control this situation (you don’t have to be a free speech purist to want to ban pseudonyms or false names on FB, and (ii) I don’t feel like a snowflake needing protection to say that someone should decide whether other platforms are now just a radicalising agent for the right) and should be dealt with if they refuse for eg fair representation of parties in the media?
If the answers come too late … it really will be too late
@Kevin Hawkins. So that’s 24 Labour defences, 19 Lib Dem, 5 Tory and one other. Is this the result of many councillors becoming MPs? It makes that Labour vote share truly dire.
Another useful measure of interpreting these stats is to look at the number of by-elections in which a party gets one-third or more of the vote share. While winning is all-important I would define getting more than a third of the votes as a “respectable” result. We have reached this level in 19 of the last 50 by-elections. Labour have done so in only five or, to put it the other way round, they have less than a third of the vote share in 90% of recent by-elections. They really aren’t doing very well.
The CC by-election in Carmarthenshire must be a worry for Labour. That’s some collapse for such an area.
Labour are in big trouble in Wales. I predict they will finish third in next year’s Senned elections.
@johnmc: Legislating to ban pseudonyms on social media is a very bad idea, as there are many valid reasons for not wishing to identify oneself there, same as LDV permits anonymous and pseudonymous posts. Facebook officially required users to go by real names, although enforcement will depend on how quickly (and accurately) its bots work.