Author Archives: Mary Reid

He has been building bug houses! Not as eye-catching as falling into water, but still a good ploy to talk about housing.

Over in The Guardian he is seen wearing a halo. Martin Kettle writes: “The Tories are fixating on Reform. They should be focused on a far bigger threat” – meaning the Lib Dems.

If wartime analogies are your thing, you could say that the Conservatives have a Singapore problem. Before the second world war, the British empire armed Singapore to fight naval battles against Japan. Famously, most of Singapore’s heavy artillery faced out to sea. But in 1942, the Japanese army overran Singapore from the rear, coming in from the Malayan mainland.

Today, the Tory high command and many supporters, especially in the media, look fixedly out to sea at the advance of Reform. As a result, they have all underestimated the threat from the Lib Dems at their rear. Even now, the Conservatives have not understood that Ed Davey is a far bigger danger to their majority than Nigel Farage.

Yesterday he met trainees who were making chilli jam at the Nickel Support community interest company in Carshalton, which works with adults with learning disabilities.  Interestingly different …

As you might expect members of the Lib Dem Voice team are fully involved in the election.

• Caron Lindsay is standing in Livingston. Caron is a veteran of many elections, and will also be supporting Christine Jardine’s election campaign.
• Charley Hasted is our PPC in Barking. Charley works as an emergency ambulance dispatcher and is Chair of LGBT+ Lib Dems.
• Paul Walter is bundling leaflets in the Newbury constituency office plus doing loads of leaflet delivery and canvassing locally.
• Mary Reid is no longer able to deliver or canvass but is doing a lot of backroom tasks for Kingston & Surbiton, from wholesaling to organising blue envelopes and sending emails to voters and members.

So apologies if we are a little slow in responding to emails between now and July 4th. Make that July 6th as we will be at counts and recovering.

Lib Dem HQ have told us that 13 Conservative MPs are standing down in Blue Wall seats where we are the main challengers. Many of them lie within Council areas where Lib Dems have done well in local elections in the last two years.

Here is the full list (with my comments):

• Nadhim Zahawi – Stratford-on-Avon. Lib Dems won control of Stratford-upon-Avon Council last year.
• Steve Brine – Winchester. Lib Dems have controlled Winchester Council for some time.
• Stephen Hammond – Wimbledon. Wimbledon is our top target seat and with the new boundaries now includes parts of Lib Dem controlled Kingston upon Thames.
• Dominic Raab – Esher and Walton. Lies within Elmbridge Council where Lib Dems are the largest party.
• Chris Grayling – Epsom and Ewell. A bit of an outlier as Epsom and Ewell District Council has been controlled by Residents’ Associations for many years, so it is difficult to gauge the current support for mainstream parties.
• Adam Afriyie – Windsor. Lies within Windsor & Maidenhead Council where we took control last year.
• Paul Beresford – Mole Valley. Lib Dems have controlled Mole Valley Council for some time.
• John Howell – Henley. Lies within Lib Dem controlled South Oxfordshire District Council.
• Philip Dunne – Ludlow/South Shropshire. Seat previously held by Lib Dem Matthew Green.
• Paul Scully – Sutton and Cheam. Sutton has been a Lib Dem controlled Council for many, many years.
• Theresa May – Maidenhead. Lies within Windsor & Maidenhead Council where we took control last year.
• James Heappey – Wells. Lies within Somerset County Council, controlled by Lib Dems.
• Nickie Aiken – Cities of London and Westminster. The unusual structure of the City of London makes this difficult to call, but Chuka Umunna put up a strong showing in 2019.

Sadiq Khan has comfortably won the Mayor of London contest although it hasn’t yet been officially announced. We can be sure of the result because the votes have been counted across the fourteen super-constituencies and their totals have been announced, so it’s a simple matter of arithmetic to work out the final result.

This contest was always a two horse race between Labour and Conservative, and voting reverted to FPTP this time around. We know that many of our voters voted tactically to keep the Tory out. Under those circumstances it is very pleasing that the Lib Dem candidate, Rob Blackie, came in third, albeit by a narrow margin of 70 votes.

🚨 BREAKING: Sadiq Khan has won the London Mayoral Election

🔴 LAB: 1,088,225 (43.7%)
🔵 CON: 811,518 (32.6%)
🟠 LDEM: 145,184 (5.8%)
🟢 GRN: 145,114 (5.8%)
🟣 RFM: 78,865 (3.2%)
⚪️ INDP: 47,815 (1.9%)

3.2% swing from Conservative to Labour

— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) May 4, 2024

It’s going to be a long day in London. The counting process began yesterday in fourteen venues across the region, one based in each of the Assembly super-constituencies.  Votes on the three differently coloured ballot papers were being verified yesterday and then counted today.

To understand the scale of the process you have to remember that the population of Greater London is more than those of Scotland and Wales taken together.

Results will be announced this afternoon in this order: Mayor of London, London Assembly constituency members, London-wide Assembly members (from the top up lists).  We already know that turnout was 40.5%. Previous turnouts have varied from 34% to 46%, so there is nothing particularly surprising in that figure.

Lib Dem interest is focussed on the SW London Constituency (Richmond, Kingston and Hounslow) which we are hoping to win. If we do then it will be the first ever constituency win for us.

The best place to follow the election results is on London Elects.

Catching up on a couple of councils that I was watching…

Gloucester has certainly seen an upheaval from a clear Conservative majority to a slightly awkward NOC. The good news is that the Lib Dems are the largest party with 17 (an increase of 7), compared with Conservatives on 11, Labour 7 and Others 4. Let’s hope our Council Group can find 3 others they can work with to make a working majority.

I have now moved the news about Elmbridge here. Our team in Elmbridge increased their seats but were just two short of the number needed for an overall majority. They will continue to run a minority administration, no doubt with the support of some of the Residents Associations, which has been working well for the past year.

And then we left Woking at the point where we knew they had won, but before all the results were in. And a great outcome – Lib Dems hold 24 out of 30 seats on the Council – and that included defeating Michael Gove’s election agent. No Conservatives left at all, in fact.

As we wrap up for the night there appear to be five councils that are nowhere near a result, or may not have actually started counting yet. None of them carry much interest for the Lib Dems.

In terms of control of Councils, Lib Dems have held 10, gained 2 and lost none.

And finally, here is the score line for the number of council seats won so far.

Feels good, doesn’t it?

🔶🥳Liberal Democrats gain control of Dorset Council from the Conservatives.

We are back in the West Country.#LocalElections2024 pic.twitter.com/O1A19xwzAf

— Liberal Democrats (@LibDems) May 3, 2024

Brilliant result! We have an overall majority of 2. Lib Dems 42, Con 30, Others 10. A magnificent gain from the Conservatives. Congratulations!

Excellent news coming out of Tunbridge Wells – probably the archetypal Blue Wall area. We have taken control of the Council winning 22 out of 39 seats.

Congratulations to the team!

I’m incredibly proud my friends and colleagues in the Tunbridge Wells Lib Dems.

We have majority control of Tunbridge Wells Borough Council with 22/39 seats.

Our vote share was 8% ahead of the Tories and Labour are dust.

💪Roll on the General Election💪 pic.twitter.com/5pksH47RIF

— Mike Martin 🔶 (@ThreshedThought) May 3, 2024

Since my last post we have held on to 3 further councils, making ten in all.

All three will be celebrating increased majorities.  In Cheltenham we now have 36 out of 40 seats! And Mole Valley is not far behind with 31 out of 39. Woking’s results are equally pleasing – a win announced while there are still 7 more seats to declare.

Things were looking very hopeful in Wokingham, but the final result has us holding exactly half the seats, so it is officially No Overall Control.

Our eyes are still on Elmbridge and also Tunbridge Wells where we are doing well. I will update this as news comes in.

Over the last few hours we have been running neck and neck with the Tories in terms of the number of seats we have won in local elections this time. As I write both parties are on 433. Mind you, they have lost 416 and we have gained 80.

As I write we have made a net increase of 44 councillors. The Tories have lost 272 and these have been transferred across the parties with a sizable chunk going to Independents. We have retained control of 6 councils, adding Three Rivers, Watford and Gosport to Winchester, Eastleigh and Hull reported earlier.

I have been watching West Oxfordshire, Brentwood and Wokingham. In West Oxfordshire we are now the largest party but without overall control. In Brentwood, where all the council seats were up for election, Lib Dems increased theirs by 1 while the Tories lost 2, but that wasn’t quite enough to overtake the Tories – however it has gone into NOC. We are still awaiting results in Wokingham.

Again – do add further news in the comments.

The results overnight were much as expected. Lib Dems held onto control in three local councils – Winchester, Eastleigh and Hull – and have made a net gain of 18 councillors. In Portsmouth we gained one councillor, which leaves us still running a minority Council.

This afternoon we can expect to hear from West Oxfordshire, Brentwood and Wokingham where we are hoping to increase our councillors and possibly take control.

Later this evening watch out for Elmbridge and Gloucester.

Please add any updates to the comments below.