Donna Lalek goes from 5th to 3rd and increases vote share in Alyn and Deeside by-election

We don’t often see Tuesday by-elections, but the Welsh Assembly’s Alyn and Deeside by-election took place yesterday.

The result was a solid one for Liberal Democrat candidate Donna Lalek.

She moved the party from 5th to 3rd and put on 1.8% in vote share.

And the numbers:

Jack Sargeant, Labour – 11,267
Sarah Atherton, Conservative – 4,722
Donna Lalek, Liberal Democrat – 1,176
Carrie Harper, Plaid Cymru – 1,059
Duncan Rees, Green Party – 353

Well done to Donna and the Welsh Lib Dems for making progress in difficult circumstances.

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12 Comments

  • Last year we got 2.4% here in the Westminster election (same boundaries), so a creditable result indeed. I’m surprised by the poor result for PC. I know this is not the best bit of Wales for them but even so.

  • See Labour put on 15%!

  • Nonconformistradical 7th Feb '18 - 9:51am

    Sympathy vote

  • Laurence Cox 7th Feb '18 - 10:56am

    @theakes

    It looks like Labour picked up the almost all the UKIP vote. Obviously they think that Labour are supporting Brexit.

  • Laurence Cox 7th Feb ’18 – 10:56am…..It looks like Labour picked up the almost all the UKIP vote. Obviously they think that Labour are supporting Brexit…..

    For whatever reason it makes the headline, giving the impression of a great LibDem surge, look rather pathetic…

  • We kept our deposit and we came third above Plaid. As said, a very credible result.

    With the absolutely terrible circumstances that led to this by-election, winning the seat will obviously have meant a lot to Jack Sergeant.

    However, as a very young man whose only qualification for the role appears to be genetic, and who purposely avoided engaging in any public pre-election debates, it will be interesting to see how he actually does as an elected representative. Best of luck to him though.

  • nvelope2003 7th Feb '18 - 11:36am

    Laurence Cox: That assumes the vote for UKIP was about Brexit. Even the vote for Brexit was not always about leaving the EU. More likely it is about Jeremy Corbyn. Labour has gained 8.6% since the GE and the Conservatives have dropped 15%. As the Liberal Democrat vote has increased by 99 (1.8%) this may be counted as a modest success but the turnout was down by more than 42% on the 2017 General Election apparently, it would be unwise to draw too many conclusions.

  • @ James “We kept our deposit and we came third above Plaid. As said, a very credible result.”

    You’re easily pleased, James. We came second in Wrexham in 2010 with 26% of the vote, and if I remember correctly, the now Lord Martin Thomas got 30% in 1983. In my young day you had to get 12.5% to save your deposit……. so all I can suggest is that you’re whistling to keep your spirits up.

    It’s unlikely this swing will transfer and be as high in a Westminster General Election, but if it is you’d better get used to having a Labour Government in the UK again.

  • David – We lost our deposit last time around, not losing it this time is an improved result. I don’t believe the result or my comments signify anything more than that.

    Owing to our expectations, I stand by ‘credible’.

    Wrexham is a different constituency – we got 18% in this one in 2010.

  • I’m sure we all want to see our vote back at 2005/2010 levels, but presumably we also agree this was not going to be achieved in one go. Therefore, incremental progress is the name of the game.
    In all elections it’s important to have an objective that is both achievable and realistic. In this case, where we were starting from a low base in a seat that was never particularly strong for us and where there were strong emotional factors favouring one of the other candidates, I suspect our objectives were along the lines of the headline of this article: a modest increase in vote share, saving our deposit and rising above 5th place. We achieved those. Is it spectacular? No, but let’s recognise progress when we see it – and commend those (presumably a small team) who worked hard to get it.

  • nvelope2003 8th Feb '18 - 12:16pm

    TonyH: Only the Labour Party are making any significant progress. There is absolutely no sign of a Liberal Democrat revival of any significance such as was achieved in the past. We must be grateful for small mercies – at least the vote did not fall and we were the only party to get an increase in actual votes cast.

  • See the Teignmouth Central by election on Monday was a win. A hold in actual effect but
    in 2015 the seat we won was the result of coming third in a three tier ward, behind two Conservatives. So this usual “doom and gloom” merchant is saying in reality we moved from third to first. Funny old world.
    Interestingly the very recent national polls show a slight but definite falling back of Labour, nothing much for us, think we reached the princely figure of 8% this morning. No change there then.

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