70 days to go to the local elections was celebrated in the form of two by-elections taking place across the country on 21st February.
Northamptonshire CC, Oundle
Con 1864 [51.3%; -14.1%]
LD Marc Folgate 1276 [35.1%; +24.6%]
Lab 403 [11.1%; -12.9%]
UKIP 89 [2.5%; +2.5%}
Turnout 36.9%
Con Hold (former Councillor sitting as Independent)
Percentage change from 2017
The standout result for the night saw Marc Folgate and the Northamptonshire Lib Dem team put out a scare to the Conservatives in an epic battle for Oundle. Putting on a fantastic campaign, Marc Folgate achieved a huge swing of 24.6% increasing his vote share to a whopping 35.1%. The result saw a huge loss of votes to the Conservativs and Labour, losing 14.1% and 12.9% respectively. Congratulations to Marc and the team on a fantastic result that is sure to raise optimism ahead of May!
Cardiff UA, Ely
PC 831 [43.1%; +17.8%]
Lab 779 [40.4%; -7.1%]
Con 271 [14.1%; -2.4%]
LD Richard Jerrett 46 [2.4%; -6.2%]
[TUSC 0 [-2.1%; -2.1%]]
PC gain Lab
Percentage change from 2017
Thanks go also to Richard Jerrett and the Cardiff Lib Dem for their hard work campaigning and fighting hard for our liberal values. Despite a difficult result, it is always extremely important to have the option to vote for the Liberal Democrats and their hard work should be appreciated, especially in an election that saw both Labour and the Conservatives lose seats.
Next week we have 1 by-election in Berkeley Vale for Stroud DC with Mike Stayte standing.
If you have a spare hour you can find contact details of who to ring to help out on 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 Mike Stayte and the team and see you next week!
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6 Comments
Both elections saw a classic “2 Party squeeze”, the 2 being us & The Tories in Oundle & Labour vs Plaid in Cardiff. Neither says much about May.
I put a comment on the Cardiff result at https://www.libdemvoice.org/will-they-all-froth-off-60031.html#comment-491931. But it is less of a drop than it looks like at first sight.
Obviously the Northamptonshire result is likely to have been dominated by the financial mess the Tories caused for the council. But actually Labour started off in second place.
More pertinent for the May elections is that in local council by-elections this year we are up 9% and Labour and the Tories are down 2% compared to when they are last fought. And we have had good increases in vote share in a range of different types of wards – shires, London and urban seats. Obviously we are likely to have some of the most tumultuous months in modern political history before then. But AS OF NOW, I would guess this would mean a national equivalent share of above 20% in May, (against about 16% last year) – in turn equating to a poll rating above 12%.
Buy a new pair of shoes and get delivering those Focuses and knocking on doors if we are to turn that into reality!
Interestingly enough PC took votes from Labour, Lib Dems and the Tories in Cardiff. Plaid often underplay their nationalist credentials as most people in Wales are against independence but their policies are centre left and similar to the Lib Dems in so many areas.
A good vote share increase in Oundle. Incidentally is there a group in the Party I could join which represents people in social housing such as myself a Council tenant? I would be interested in joining it. That was an excellent Lib Dem policy to give LAs the right to suspend the right to buy. I shall be delivering Focus leaflets to fellow council tenants over the weekend, just can’t wait to get out there.
I really do hope there was not a lot of “hard work campaigning” in the Cardiff seat. But the Oundle result was very good and certainly not down to the “classic two-party squeeze”. It’s a pity there are not more Council by-elections taking place at the moment.
@ElectionMapsUK has a really useful running total of stats. This is a much better guide to how the parties are doing than focusing on the weekly contests.
ALL BY ELECTIONS IN 2019 (12 contests)
CON: 3 Seats (=), 25.4% (-2.2)
LAB: 3 Seats (-2), 23.6% (-3.7)
LDM: 2 Seats (+1), 24.8% (+9.8)
SINCE 2018 LOCAL ELECTIONS (160 contests)
CON: 58 Seats (-7), 32.1% (-2.2)
LAB: 55 Seats (-5), 29.3% (+1.3)
LDM: 27 Seats (+10), 19.9% (+6.1)
SINCE 2017 GE (404 contests).
CON: 152 Seats (-32), 33.1% (-0.3)
LAB: 141 Seats (+6), 31.3% (+4.1)
LDM: 65 Seats (+30), 17.5% (+6.1)
For the complete stats including Greens, Nats etc see the full tweets at https://twitter.com/ElectionMapsUK
markstevens -This is a point. I am also a council tenant delivering leaflets .Their will be more of us.When Mark Pack comes on Lib dems bloggers ( Lib Dem campaign guru) enquiry’s could be made on this matter . We could have a word with him