A psephologically and geographically pleasing set of 4 local by-elections this week, with 1 Tory, 1 Labour, 1 LD and 1 Independent defence, from Bolton in the North West to Bournemouth in the South West and Rochford in the South East. Also pleasing from our perspective is the full slate of candidates.
A huge thank you to last night’s brilliant team of volunteers who came to 23 New Mount Street in Manchester to make calls at ALDC’s By-election HQ. It’s always good fun with such a lovely team – if you haven’t been yet please come and join our winning team! ALDC’s by-election support and the grants we offer to by-elections are funded through vital fighting fund donations. If you can help us fight in even more wards, please donate here.
Rochford DC, Downhall and Rawreth – Lib Dem hold
LD Craig Cannell 794 [77.0%; +16.6%]
Con 237 [23.0%; +6.4%]
Lab 0 [[0%; -7.9%]]
Residents 0 [[0%; -15.2%]]
First we head to Rochford for the first Lib Dem win of 2018, we congradulate soon to be Councillor Craig Cannell and the whole Rochford team for a storming win in a straight up fight with the Conservatives. This result continues the fine Lib Dem tradition in Downhall and Rawreth, with no party putting up a decent fight against us for at least the last 16 years!
Milton Keynes UA, Newport Pagnell North and Hanslope – Conservative hold
Con 1604 [53.0%; +5.2%]
Lab 749 [24.8%; +4.0%]
LD Jane Caroline Carr 672 [22.2%; +3.7%]
UKIP 0 [[0.0%; -12.9%]]
Next we head to Milton Keynes where we thank Jane Carr for a solid share of the vote with each party benefitting from the failure (yet again) of UKIP to stand. Continuing the theme of the last few weeks, there doesn’t seem to be a noticable swing from Tory to Labour, with the exception of…
Bolton MB, Hulton – Conservative gain from Labour
Con 1455 [49.4%; +16.7%]
Lab 1179 [40.1%; +3.0%]
UKIP 190 [6.5%; -18.0%]
LD Derek Gradwell 67 [2.3%; -0.2%]
Grn 52 [1.8%; -1.5%]
Closer to our office’s neck of the woods, we thank Derek Gradwell for standing as the Tories sweep up the UKIP vote to gain from Labour, in a repeat of the pattern that did so well for them in the May 2017 Local Elections but didn’t hold 5 weeks later at the General Election. This result does serve well to be a cautious reminder that even though our vote shares will (hopefully) increase this May we need to be wary of the Conservatives in particular profitting from a UKIP freefall.
Bournemouth UA, Throop & Muscliff – Independent hold
Ind 533 [31.3%; -4.1%]
Con 511 [30.0%; +0.8%]
Lab 402 [23.6%; +13.1%]
Ind 117 [6.9%; +6.9%]
LD Muriel Turner 107 [6.3%; +6.3%]
Grn 33 [0.8%; -5.3%]
Finally we head to Bournemouth where we thank Muriel Turner for standing in a ward that has been constintly won by an Independent group, as they see off a strong Conservative challenge and strong increase in Labour’s vote.
Just the one by-election next week, on the Isle of Wight. See you then!
For a detailed list of this week’s results please click
here. If you would like more information on all the forthcoming by-elections and details on who to contact to help, click
here.
* ALDC is the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors and Campaigners
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One Comment
Plus a town council hold? gain ? as well 🙂