There were eight principal by-elections this week in Blackpool, Doncaster, Maidstone, Northumberland, Reading, Rhondda, Walsall and Windsor. The Liberal Democrats made two gains, Labour held four seats, UKIP gained one seat and an Independent held one seat.
The Berwick Liberal Democrats stormed to victory in the rural ward of Longhoughton (Northumberland CC). Kate Cairns won just shy of 50% of the vote to gain the seat for the Liberal Democrats after the death of a long standing and popular Independent councillor. The division which had not seen such a competitive election in a long time saw the Conservatives come second with 23.5%, an Independent came third (13.9%), UKIP were fourth with 9.8% and Labour trailed in last with 3.2%. Campaigning is not easy in the division which is nearly the size of Luxembourg so the local Liberal Democrats made good use of Virtual Phone Banks and had help with telephoning from across the country. They also made use of ALDC best practice resources to run a strong traditional literature campaign. Julie Pörksen, the local PPC who is hoping to succeed Sir Alan Beith, helped lead the by-election effort and ran a popular local campaign about Labour cutting post-16 subsidised transport. Cllr Cairns is a parish councillor and well-known road safety champion and so the campaign also focused on speeding, cycle safety, potholes and parking along the coastal road.
The Liberal Democrats also gained a seat in Staplehurst ward from the Conservatives in Maidstone and the Weald. Just six votes separated victorious Paulina Watson from her Conservative opponent. The Liberal Democrat share of the vote increased by 9% to 36.2%, the Conservatives were runners up with 35.9%, UKIP’s vote dropped 5% to come third on 18.5%, Labour got 7% and the Green Party came last with 2.4%. Cllr Watson who is Dutch was a manager in social care for Kent County Council. The Conservative’s council’s housing expansion plans were the key issue in the by-election. The result is a blow to the Tory minority-council and leaves the current composition as 24 Conservatives, 20 Liberal Democrats, five Independents, four UKIP and two Labour councillors.
For all the detailed results see ALDC elections
* ALDC is the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors and Campaigners
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17 Comments
Ah me.
It is the best part of thirty years since I wrote all the literature for a winning by-election in this constituency.
Well done, Julie & co.
Well done indeed, Julie & co. Heartening news with which to enter the weekend. (Unlike some in Labour ranks, I should think. The Doncaster ward referred to saw UKIP come in ahead of Labour. (Yes, DONCASTER – Milliband’s constituency (and where, just to rub it in/solidify their role as the champions of the Great Proletarian National Awakening, the Kippers will be holding their national conference (at which (who knows?) they might even come up with a Manifesto they do not denounce as “unreadable rubbish” a couple of years later?)) Tories were down nearly 3 points at third place and no LD was standing. So where does the progressive, non-socialist vote go? Yep, the Greens came from nowhere to pick up 6%. Not a prayer we are going to get back the unfixed, floating protest/”stuff the lot of you” old white blokes vote which has firmly gone to Kipperland in places like Doncaster + Thurrock and Thanet South and other constituencies identified by Ashcroft as potentially giving the Kippers their first Westminster seats (http://lordashcroftpolls.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/LORD-ASHCROFT-POLLS-Con-Lab-marginals-report-July-2014.pdf) (and where Farage will be fully focusing his resources and has absolutely no problem at all in making ti clear how he intends to learn from us in the tactics he adopts). What I DO believe, though, is that if we do not start winning people back from the Greens (who are basically ‘our kind of people’ in any case), it will be a real tragedy
Charles Rothwell
Looking at the results through very amber-tinted lenses but if it makes you happy to do so then carry on
Firstly, cherry-picked local by-election results have absolutely no bearing on how a GE is going to go, secondly each seat has its own local complexities and reasons for the results cannot be used for too many conclusions, unless of course the party is seeing a collapse in vote everywhere or lots of losses
If we ale the Doncaster seat – LD I believe used to have good representation here and the actual UKIP candidate seems to have changed parties at a rapid rate (including your own). It is also a seat where parties such as the ED have done well before and the presence of the Greens will also have an impact.
Do you honestly believe that UKIP are going to take Miliband’s seat….really?
The seat in Northumberland was taken from a long-standing independent and choosing a local candidate would have helped. No Labour presence here
Maidstone a very good result but against the Tories……your friends and partners. Does it show you can still win these type or parliamentary seats…,perhaps or not?
Elsewhere pretty dismal
What the elections are showing is that the LD are no longer a national party…..Tory and Labour have areas where they do not register well but the LD do not seem to be able to field candidates or raise votes above 3% in large swathes of the country. What is going to happen in ten months to change that
Having Osborne’s tame LD popping up and drawing some rather optimistic and cherry-picked conclusions about the economic state of the country…even more buoyant than Osborne – when so many of your ex-voters have not felt any benefit at all was another shot in the foot
But then again I don’t think you care much anymore being ‘right-wing economically’ as I have seen made clear from members recently
In the latest Poll UKIP are down 4% to 9%, level with The Libdems. Looking, more sensibly at Polling averages UKIP have been falling steadily since their peak in early June & are now roughly back where they were before May. In Local byelections UKIP have an impressive record where they stand for the first time but in most cases they lose Vote share when they stand again.
The Greens currently average 5%, again thats down from June.
paulbarker
In one of the latest polls you mean!
In others the Lib Dems are lower, but even if UKIP and the Greens are off where they were recently there seems to be no increase in LD performance so I fail to see what your point is.
The main beneficiaries seem to be Labour and the Tories who are polling a combined figure higher than they have for a while
Well done to the teams in Maidstone and Northumberland – great results there.
For info the UkIP win in Doncaster was in Rosie Winterton’s Doncaster Central seat rather than Ed M’s Doncaster North.
“In the latest Poll UKIP are down 4% to 9%, level with The Libdems.”
But the Tories are the beneficiaries. That is anything but good news for the Lib Dems. The situation starts to look like a “perfect storm”, in which the Lib Dems are down by something like 15% on 2010, while Labour are significantly up and the Tories are about the same as they were.
If anything, you should be praying for a UKIP revival, not celebrating their demise.
The ukip councillor in Doncaster Central used to be LD as well as a Lab cllr.
“The Conservative’s council’s housing expansion plans were the key issue in the by-election” – I do hope this wasn’t the local Lib Dems whipping up the Nimby vote at the expense of the party policy of building more houses ?
Blackpool Borough – Clifton:
Lab 501, UKIP 362, C 283, LD 33, Green 25, TUSC 10. (May 2011 – Two seats Lab 1090, 911, C 567, 475, Ind 221).
Lab hold.
Doncaster Borough – Edenthorpe, Kirk Sandall and Barnby Dun:
UKIP 1203, Lab 1109, C 479, Green 160. (May 2014 – UKIP 1304, Lab 1267, C 681, English Democrats 198, TUSC 102).
UKIP gain from Lab.
Maidstone Borough – Staplehurst:
Lib Dem 609, C 603, Ukip 311, Lab 117, Green 41. (May 2014 – C 619, Lib Dem 510, Ukip 441, Lab 147, Ind 98, Green 65).
Lib Dem gain from C.
Northumberland County – Longhoughton:
Lib Dem 742, C 352, Ind 208, UKIP 146, Lab 48. (May 2013 – Ind 705, C 315, Ind 184, Ukip 178).
Lib Dem gain from Ind.
Reading Borough – Southcote:
Lab 1019, C 340, UKIP 226, Green 69, LD 49. (May 2014 – Lab 1286, C 626, Green 213, Lib Dem 110).
Lab hold.
Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough – Aberaman North:
Lab 356, Ind 276, Plaid Cymru 228, TUSC 23, C 20. (May 2012 – Two seats Lab 900, 781, Plaid Cymru 396).
Lab hold.
Walsall Borough – Birchills-Leamore:
Lab 1075, C 710, UKIP 445, Eng Dem 20. (May 2014 – Lab 1194, UKIP 854, C 707, BNP 140).
Lab hold.
Windsor and Maidenhead Royal Borough – Clewer North:
Ind 878, C 486, Lab 158. (May 2011 – Three seats Ind 1392, 1159, 1151, C 1016, 895, 831, Lab 372).
Ind hold.
The Doncaster seat is not in Ed Milibands constituency – according to Conservative home – Since it was established in 2004 the ward has never been a strong Labour ward . It was won by the Lib Dems and Independents until 2010 when Labour won it narrowly then more easily in 2011 and 2012 . It is a mistake to see this as a movement in voters from Labour to UKIP .
The movement has been from Lib Dem Indie Eng Dem and some Conservatives to UKIP some of whom voted Labour in 2011 and 2012 . Even in this by election the Labour vote was higher than in the 2006 – 2008 period
So there you have it, a ward the Lib dems used to win but now can’t even find a candidate.
“So there you have it, a ward the Lib dems used to win but now can’t even find a candidate.”
The Lib Dems couldn’t find a candidate in 4 out of the 8 contests on Thursday. Even the ultra-loyalists acknowledge this is a problem.
It would be interesting to know why only half of the local by-elections on a given day were contested by the Lib Dems. I used to think it must be hard getting nomination papers completed when the vote was down to a couple of dozen or so. But someone kindly explained that non-supporters are willing to be signatories in the interests of democracy and fair play and that sort of thing.
So is the difficulty finding eligible people willing to be paper candidates? Or have the party structures collapsed to the extent that there is just no one there to organise things and get the paperwork filled in and delivered?
Maidstone shows us what can be done by determined local activists, despite the “coalition”, the unpopular leader, the numerous tactical blunders and the declining activist base. If we changed the leader and brought in someone I am probably not allowed to name to run the campaign, many more Maidstones would appear on the radar screen.
Maidstone has maintained a substantial local government presence since the 1970s, though there has never been a majority administration. Other parts of Kent have come and gone (Gillingham, Shepway, Swale, Tonbridge & Malling, Tunbridge Wells), but Maidstone has always kept the flag flying. If the boundaries were drawn around the town, as they have been in Colchester since 1997, Maidstone might well have been a gain by now. It is great to see one of the villages elect a Liberal Democrat councillor. The 1997 victory in Hereford was preceded by a move out into the villages. Under different circumstances, I would be hailing Staplehurst as a sign of things to come.
I think Southcote in Reading used to be ours,
Chris There are always black holes, and however far you go back you will find uncontested seats. It is just that there is now a tendency for black holes to join up, and the further you are from a centre of activity, the less likely is it that anyone will be found.
re the nimbyism comment in relation to Staplehurst. There are many many issues with the Conservative local plan in Maidstone, one of which is ignoring regeneration sites for green field sites, simply because its easier that way rather than doing the job of drawing up the Local Plan properly. Another is ignoring sites put FORWARD for development by local communities and Parishes in favour of their own pet projects. So it is to a large degree not how many, but where, and also what, as they are proposing lots of flats and executive houses and too few family homes.
Sesenco… Maidstone Local Party decided at our recent exec not only to not hold a ballot on whether to replace Clegg but also unanimously to send a letter of support. We win in Maidstone because we sell what the leadership has done (and make it local) not in spite of them. We win because we’re not afraid to get out on the doorstep (time and time again) and talk tough to people.