I’m on by-election duty for ALDC tonight. And the first result of the night’s six by-elections was a cracker.
Great result from Durham’s Esh and Witten Gilbert ward. Bev Coult holds seat for @libdems with 62% of the vote, up 9.5%
Lib Dem Bev Coult: 1115
Lab: 366
Indi: 155
Con: 128— ALDC (@ALDC) March 21, 2019
Nicely done, Bev. Congratulations to you and your team.
And in Southend on Sea, there was an advance of nearly 10% for Carol White:
Strong result in the Milton ward in Southend on Sea for Carol White – up nearly 10%.
LAB: 49.9% (+4.7)
CON: 31.6% (+5.3)
LDEM: 13.1% (+9.7)
FBM: 5.3% (+5.3)— ALDC (@ALDC) March 21, 2019
And great to be standing a candidate in Thurroci:
Well done to Tomas Pilvelis our @thurrocklibdems candidate in the Aveley and Uplands by-eleciton.
This was a Conservative gain for Independents.
CON: 43.6% (+16.4)
TIND: 31.1% (-12.1)
LAB: 22.2% (-1.5)
LDEM: 3.1% (+3.1)— ALDC (@ALDC) March 21, 2019
There were two by-elections with no Lib Dem candidate.
Here’s the first result.
Labour hold in Vange (Basildon). No @libdems candidate
LAB: 51.3% (+10.1)
CON: 48.7% (+27.2)— ALDC (@ALDC) March 21, 2019
And the second:
Independents gain from Labour in Newcastle under Lyme.
IND: 40.3% (+23.2)
LAB: 38.3% (-13.9)
UKIP: 12.3% (+2.6)
CON: 7.0% (-8.3)
SDP: 2.0% (+2.0)via @britainelects
— ALDC (@ALDC) March 21, 2019
One more to come – Dalgarno ward in Kensington and Chelsea where Alexandra Tatton-Brown is flying the Lib Dem flag.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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8 Comments
I was went to assist, with others, our Durham friends in 2017 in Esh Witton Gilbert. Mostly x pit villages plus post war build. A joy to see a further Lab vote fall. In Durham. After this week. And Lab losing elsewhere.
A real team effort from what I hear with a great team leader in Craig Martin
Stonking result in Durham – congrats to the team there. I thought we might see a fall in vote share given that we had increased our vote by 22% last time in 2017. It’s an increase of 30% since 2013 – almost doubling our vote.
Also an increase in our vote of around 4% in the final by-election of the night in Delgarno ward in Kensington and Chelsea.
There does seem to be a very clear trend of Lib Dem at the moment of a Lib Dem increase in vote and Labour and Tory decrease in virtually every by-election.
As a guesstimate I would say that puts us on course for a vote share above 20% in the locals in May – equivalent to around a 14% opinion poll rating (we are about 6% less in opinion polls than our local vote share).
The Tories now have a NET satisfaction rating of -75 only marginal better than -78 Major had in ’94 after Black Wednesday and “cash for questions”.
Witton Gilbert, was one of our best Durham wards in the 80’s, well remember canvassing there. Some small signs of getting off the bottom 3-5% becoming 10%+ in recent weeks.
Our Councillors in this Durham ward are obviously doing a great job in a deprived area. How can we learn from them so that we can increase our representation in more areas like this? Can ALDC share this information?
“Our Councillors in this Durham ward are obviously doing a great job in a deprived area.” Witton Gilbert isn’t a deprived area. It’s a leafy(ish) commuter village for Durham City (with its University and Cathedral) with a lot of newish housing. It has a Medieval parish church and the (very) small colliery closed fifty nine years ago in 1960.
On top of which, the Lib Dems had a strong local lively candidate :
According to the local paper,
“Unlike the Conservative and Labour candidates, Bev Coult lives in the area, in Langley Park. Bev has a long history of community work in Langley Park and the surrounding area. She is secretary of the cricket club and allotment association and led the project to create a community garden in Langley Park”.
A good effort by a good candidate who was obviously doing – and seen to be doing – much more than, ‘Flying the Flag’..
I can assure Sue Sutherland that the City of Durham is far from a depriived area.
Apologies to the candidate if I made the wrong conclusion from Ian Patterson’s description of the ward as being mostly ex pit villages. I’m still hoping for us to try and make a difference to people who are struggling and hoped we were here.