A busy Thursday of six by-elections welcomed campaigners into February, with 1 hold, 1 gain and a 21% swing for the team in Lambeth.

Bradford MB, Bolton & Undercliffe
LD Rachel Sunderland 1733 [51.3%; +9.0%]
Lab 1153 [34.1%; -10.6%]
Con 418 [12.4%; +2.4%]
Green 73 [2.2%; -0.8%]
LD gain from Lab
Percentage change from 2018

We jump straight in at our standout result of the night in the Bolton & Undercliffe by-election. A hard-worked campaign from Rachel Sunderland and the Bradford team saw a fantastic first gain of the year for the Lib Dems and first gain from Labour since October. With a huge increase of 9% of the vote share and a lead of over 500 votes the whole team can be proud. Congratulations on a great result!

Wokingham BC, Evendons
LD Sarah Kerr 1441 [63.1%; +16.3%]
Con 729 [31.9%; -8.8%]
Lab 115 [5.0%; -7.5%]
LD Hold
Percentage change from 2018

Sarah Kerr put on a brilliant showing to hold Evendons seat in Wokingham BC. Not only did Sarah successfully defend the seat, she also increased her vote by a whopping 16.3% leaving her with a majority of over 700 votes! This result is an extremely positive showing for the party and is a great sign in the run up to the elections in May. Well done Sarah and the team for what was a brilliant result.

Lambeth LB, Thornton
Lab 1154 [44.7%; -18.2%]
LD Rebecca Macnair 845 [32.8%; +23.1%]
Green 251 [9.7%; -1.7%]
Con 247 [9.6%; -6.4%]
WEP 46 [1.8%; +1.8%]
UKIP 36 [1.4%; +1.4%]
Lab Hold
Percentage change from 2018

We now head to our first London Borough by-election of the day in Lambeth where Rebecca Macnair put on a great battle to finish an extremely solid second place in the race for Thornton Ward in Lambeth LB. Rebecca and the team campaigned relentlessly to take 32.8% of the vote, a huge increase on 23.1% from the 2018 result. The result saw Labour lose 18.2% of their vote and their majority cut to just over 300. The result lays great foundations for the Lambeth team’s next Thornton by-election!

Buckinghamshire CC, Totteridge & Bowerdean
Lab 978 [40.8%; +15.5%]
Ind 668 [27.8%; -12.1%]
LD Ben Holkham 508 [21.2%; +6.4%]
Con 245 [10.2%; -9.8%]
Lab gain from Ind
Percentage change from 2017

Tower Hamlets LB, Lansbury
Lab 1308 [40.8%; +2.5%]
Aspire 1002 [31.3%; +7.0%]
LD Muhammad Abdul Asad 290 [9.0%;+0.0%]
UKIP 176 [5.5%; +5.5%]
Con 175 [5.5.%; +1.7%]
House Party 89 [2.8%;+2.8%]
[People’s Alliance 0 [0.0%; -11.6%]]
[Ind 0 [0.0%; -3.0%]]
Lab Hold
Percentage change from 2018

Thanks go also to Ben Holkham and Muhammad Abdul Asad for their hard work campaigning and fighting hard for our liberal values.

Next week see’s 1 by-election taking place in the Vale of Glamorgan with no Lib Dem candidate.

Thanks go to Joe Harmer of Cotswold and Cheltenham Lib Dems for reporting our by-elections last night and if you’re interested in helping then please contact us!

If you have a spare hour you can find contact details of who to ring to help out on the forthcoming by-elections section of our website.

Or why not donate to the ALDC Fighting Fund so we can give more grants to local teams to help us win more by-elections.

Good luck to all our standing candidates and see you next week!

Campaigning Liberal Democrats choose ALDC… join us to improve your chances of winning. We’re a membership organisation that provides advice, resources and training for Liberal Democrat councillors and campaigners across Britain. Find out more. 

* ALDC is the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors and Campaigners