Thursday was a brilliant day to be a Liberal Democrat! Building on our strong start to the year, we won every principal authority seat we were contesting, in addition to the ground shaking win in Tiverton and Honiton! The result in Tiverton and Honiton, over-turning a 24,000 vote majority, handed the Tories their worst by-election defeat in history. What a result! Congratulations must go out to all our teams across the country who worked so hard for these results.
We start off on Shropshire Council, where newly elected Lib Dem councillor Mark Williams gained the Highley seat from the Independent – from a standing start! The Lib Dems didn’t stand last time, so this really is a fantastic result. Congratulations to Mark and the Shropshire team.
Shropshire Council, Highley ward
Liberal Democrat (Mark Williams): 630
Conservative: 279
Labour: 239
Green Party:
Next to Waverley Borough Council – Hindhead, where Lib Dem Julian Spence also had a fantastic night – winning 54.6% of the vote and taking the seat from the Conservatives. Congratulations to Julian and the team for a brilliant GAIN.
Waverley Borough Council, Hindhead
Liberal Democrat (Julian Spence): 537
Conservative: 446
We also had another phenomenal night in Kingston, where there was a deferred election on new boundaries. Once again, the team smashed it, taking all three seats that were up for election. Congratulations to Cllrs Mark Durrant, Dongsung (Robert) Kim, and Lesley Heap!
Kingston upon Thames London Borough Council, New Malden Village
Liberal Democrats: 1217, 1184, 1182
Green Party: 827
Kingston Independent Residents Group (KIRG): 724, 703
Conservative: 427, 372, 327
Labour: 436, 429, 37
We also had some fantastic results on both Godalming and Haslemere Town Councils, with Tom Kiehl holding our seat in Godalming, and Conrad Waters gaining a seat from the Conservatives in Haslemere. Congratulations to both teams!