There were five principal council by-elections this week, of which all had a Liberal Democrat candidate on the ballot. Three council seats were being defended by us.
We held this seat in the Cotswolds with a solid lead while the right‑of‑centre vote splintered, leaving Reform as the nearest challenger and the Conservatives slipping to third place. Congratulations are due to Councillor Paul Evans and the local Liberal Democrat team for ensuring that this seat remained Liberal Democrat.
Cotswold District Council, The Beeches
Liberal Democrats (Paul Evans): 390 (52.7%, -3.0)
Reform UK: 168 (22.7%, new)
Conservatives: 122 (16.5%, -17.9)
Green: 53 (7.2%, -3.0)
Labour: 7 (0.9%, new)
Liberal Democrat HOLD
Turnout: 33.8%
In Oxfordshire, we were able to gain this seat from the Greens in this two-member ward, with Reform finishing well behind in third place. Congratulations are due to Councillor Caleb Pell and the local Liberal Democrat team for this result.
Vale of White Horse District Council, Abingdon Abbey Northcourt
Liberal Democrats (Caleb Pell): 647 (43.7%, +1.9)
Green Party: 480 (32.5%, -3.3)
Reform UK: 204 (13.8%, new)
Conservative: 101 (6.8%, -5.7)
Labour: 47 (3.2%, -6.5)
Liberal Democrats GAIN from Green Party
Turnout: 31.6%
In Penrith, we were able to hold off Reform and ensure that we retained this council seat. Congratulations are due to Councillor Barbara Jayson and the local Liberal Democrat team.
Westmorland and Furness Council, Penrith South
Liberal Democrats (Barbara Jayson): 749 (43.1%, -1.5)
Reform UK: 588 (33.9%, new)
Green Party: 225 (13.0%, +2.6%)
Conservatives: 173 (10.0%, – 15.5%)
Liberal Democrat HOLD
Turnout 23.5%
Meanwhile, in Liverpool, we unsuccessfully defended this council seat, slipping behind the Greens. Commiserations are due to Dave Thomas and the local Liberal Democrat team.
Liverpool City Council, Aigburth
Green Party: 782 (45.0%, +29.8)
Liberal Democrats (Dave Thomas): 637 (36.7%, -13.4)
Labour: 177 (10.2%, -21.6)
Reform UK: 121 (7.0%, new)
Independent: 12 (0.7%, new)
Conservative: 8 (0.5%, -1.8)
Green Party GAIN from the Liberal Democrats
Turnout: 42.7%
Reform were able to gain a seat this week, off the localist Lincolnshire Independents in Sleaford. Thank you to Susan Hislop for flying the Liberal Democrat flag.
North Kesteven District Council, Sleaford Westholme
Reform UK: 243 (45.1%, new)
Lincolnshire Independents 87 (16.1%, -13.4)
Conservatives 81 (15.0%, new)
Green 55 (10.2%, new)
Independent 49 (9.1%, -20.2)
Liberal Democrats (Susan Hislop) 12 (2.2%, new)
Independent 12 (2.2%, new)
Reform UK GAIN from Lincolnshire Independents
Turnout: 26.0%
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.
* Liam Yip is the Campaigns and Communications Intern at ALDC
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14 Comments
What went down in Liverpool? There was a sizeable swing to the Greens here. We were not able to counteract the swing locally?
Has anyone seen a FB video supposedly of Ed ranting about Churchill being replaced by a badger on the £5 to patriotic music. Please tell me it’s an AI fake.
I h ave been looking at predictions for the coming round of Local Elections & “all over the place” hardly covers it. Labour are set to lose a third of their Seats or three quarters. Reform will come first in Seat numbers or third. The Greens will gain less than 200 Seats in England or more than 500 in London alone.
Essentially nobody has the foggiest idea.
I usually quote The Polls at this point but again there is no consensus about Labour, Reform or The Greens.
All we can safely say is that Reform are falling & The Greens are rising.
@Paul Barker
As far as performance in local by-elections is concerned there is no evidence that Reform are falling. They have been consistently in the range 25% to 29% since last June. They are currently at the higher end of that range.
The Greens have risen from around 9% to 13% over the same period.
Opinion polls may come to a different conclusion but I have always been sceptical about polls. The question “How would you vote if a General Election was held tomorrow?” is incapable of being proved accurate or otherwise unless there actually is an election tomorrow.
@ Johnm,
The Ed Davey video looks real enough to me!
Churchill’s and all historical notables have had a good run. It’s time for a change. We have all kinds of pics on our stamps. I’ve no problem with giving badgers, foxes, squirrels etc a turn!
I have no problem with featuring nature on our notes, but it should be animals which are only, or almost only, in this country.
@David Blake
Which would rule out any creature capable of swimming across from Europe now.
However Britain was last joined to mainland Europe some 8000 years ago and the European Badger is widely distributed over the continent. Which might suggest some might have migrated to Britain before Britain was separated from the rest of the continent by a tsunami.
@ JohnM asks whether the Sir Ed/badger/Churchill bank note video is a fake.
The answer is a slightly embarrassed Sir Ed confirmed it’s genuine at Conference today.
For my part I would simply say that to list Churchill’s gaffes and illiberalism would exceed the word limit on LDV. The good people of Dundee got rid of him as their M.P. back in 1922 and I would happily have voted for his opponent Edmund D. Morel.
Sorry, but not Sir Ed’s finest hour.
Neither Polls nor Local by-elections have been a useful guide to The May Elections in the past but I think they both tell us something real.
“I have no problem with featuring nature on our notes, but it should be animals which are only, or almost only, in this country.”
I can’t think of any animals that are endemic to Britain… and my wife has a degree in ecology, and we spend most of our spare time looking at wildlife. I can think of a few plants though.
I clearly posted too soon. There are the Scottish Crossbill, the Orkney Vole, Skomer Vole, St Kilda Field Mouse, and some freshwater fish. It seems to be a very Scottish list… how to anger the English.
Nobody gives a fig what the people of Dundee thought in 1922, or have any idea who Edmund Monrel was. Ed is right let’s keep Churchill. If it was up to the wokerati they’d stick Greta Thunberg on a fiver.
Thanks guys for breaking the news that SED really did go off about badgers replacing Churchill. Sadly.
It’s not a question of woke, and am weary of that word being flung around these days, it’s three things (for me). One, as a historian, I don’t whitewash Churchill’s activities becauseconservatives want us to think that only they produce national hero leaders (by the way Lloyd George also ‘won’ a world war?). Two, his family expected a ten year run in the river, nothing more. THree, RBS in Scotland did a similar things and found people wanted wildlife and so put salmon, otters, ospreys and red squirrels on their notes – if you haven’t seen them take a look, they’re a joy!
By the way, the public will get to decide which animal eventually goes on the £5 note, A badger isn’t on the list. Neither is a bulldog although I suppose it might at least appease everyone!
How nice it would be for conference to commend the BoE, to make amends for the leader’s blind spot. 🙂
When people go on about the wokerati taking over bank notes they really want to check out who preceeded Churchill on the fiver!