Tag Archives: local elections may 2022

NewsHound

West Oxfordshire Alliance to be led by Lib Dems

By NewsHound | Thu 12th May 2022 - 8:16 am

West Oxfordshire District Council is to be led by a coalition of the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Green parties after the Conservatives lost their majority last week for the first time in 22 years.

This marks a continuing trend in Oxfordshire, once a true blue wall outside the City of Oxford which remains solidly Labour. The Tories only holdout is now Cherwell in the north of the county.

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Lib Dems power ahead in Powys but not yet in control

By Andy Boddington | Fri 6th May 2022 - 5:51 pm

In 2017, the voters in Powys elected 30 independent councillors, though that was down on previous elections. The Conservatives had 19 seats and the Liberal Democrats 13.

Today us Lib Dems have 24 seats, not enough to control the council but negotiations on how the council will be run are getting underway.

This is a major advance for the Lib Dems in the Welsh Marches. We have 14 councillors elected as Lib Dems in Shropshire, including seven in the south west, which is next door to Powys.

 

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NewsHound

Baroness Kramer on Lib Dem local election wins

By NewsHound | Fri 6th May 2022 - 10:28 am

In the early hours today, it became clear that the Lib Dems have made substantial gains across the country, including taking control of Hull. Baroness Susan Kramer to spoke to the BBC’s Huw Edwards about the party’s successes.

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Wow what a night! (7.30am)

By Andy Boddington | Fri 6th May 2022 - 7:35 am

If you are just waking up, the news is the Conservatives are suffering losses, though they are not so far as great as some predicted. Labour is doing well in London having taken the former Tory strongholds of Wandsworth, Westminster and Barnet but not as well elsewhere.

The Lib Dems and Greens made gains at the expense of the bigger parties. And the Lib Dems have regained control of Hull! All the results so far are for councils in England. Scotland and Wales will begin counting shortly.

The leader of Hull’s Liberal Democrats Mike Ross told Radio 4 in the early hours: “It’s been a great night for the City of Hull.” It has been a great night for the Lib Dems too.

Just before 7.30am this morning, we had 257 seats, a gain of 57. In the New Statesman earlier in the week, Ben Walker predicted that Lib Dems would gain 41 seats in England at the best. We passed that benchmark before 5:00am.

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The voting is over. The results are coming in.

By Andy Boddington | Fri 6th May 2022 - 12:27 am

We’ll be bringing updates through the night and through to Saturday. In the small hours, it is looking good for the Lib Dems. But it is early yet and some counts won’t begin until the morning.

This was a state of play at 5am. Labour are making some gains now. The Conservatives are doing badly but not as badly as excepted (hoped for). And the big news so far. The Lib Dems have gained 42 new seats and have taken control of Hull Council.

This post is no longer being updated. We’ll publish more news and comment shortly.

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We’re off. It’s election day. Good luck!

By Andy Boddington | Thu 5th May 2022 - 7:00 am

The polling stations are open. The kettle is on in committee rooms. Good Morning and GoTVs are being delivered. The tellers are wrapped up well, collecting data on who’s voting, even how they are voting. Data officers are heads down. The Shuttleworths are being warmed up. The knocker uppers are getting ready to get the straggling voters out.

Votes will take place in all 32 councils in Scotland and all 22 councils in Wales. Elections are being held in 146 English councils, including all 32 boroughs in London. In Northern Ireland, voters will select 90 members of the Northern Ireland Assembly in Stormont.

Across all four nations, 21,352 candidates are standing, including 3,664 Lib Dems.

Counting begins in some English councils soon after the polls close at 10pm tonight and elsewhere tomorrow. Some counting may go into Saturday.

The team here at LDV will be juggling election duties with reporting the results. We wish all those standing and campaigning the best of luck.

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Mary Reid

Eve of Poll

By Mary Reid | Wed 4th May 2022 - 10:45 am

My colleague Mark Valladares regularly entertains us with his “Welcome to my day” posts. So today I want to share with you my Eve of Poll day.

I have been campaigning for the Lib Dems (and Liberals and SDP before that) since the mid 1970s. I was asked to stand as a paper candidate in 1978 in the ward where I lived. I declined but I doubt whether I would have made much difference to the 6% vote.  Only 8 years later we won the ward with 58% and after a further 8 years we reached an astonishing 76%. (I can claim no credit for that as I was then employed by the local authority and not able to stand.)

I like to tell that story because it says two things. First, politics is a long game, and in normal times we should aim for incremental gains rather than massive turnarounds. Second, the old strategy of “pick a ward and win it” does work – not always, but it’s worth a shot.

As a party we are brilliant at by-elections, both Parliamentary and local. So many of our members love joining in a campaign, and we make it fun. But by-elections can give a distorted impression of how we win seats in regular Council and Assembly elections. For the most part success follows years of campaigning – “Working for you all the year round, not just at election time”. True, we can sometimes benefit from the mood of the country, but we should always view that as a bonus.

So tomorrow I will be excited to see long-term efforts paying off across the country.  Good luck to all candidates and campaigners!

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Davey on tax cuts, the non-existent pact with Labour and nuclear disarmament

By Andy Boddington | Mon 2nd May 2022 - 10:25 am

Ed Davey appeared on BBC One Sunday Morning yesterday. Interviewed by Sophie Raworth, he spoke about the cost of living, the need for tax cuts, keeping our nuclear deterrent until multilateral disarmament can be agreed and the forthcoming local elections and by-elections. He firmly denied the Lib Dems have a deal with Labour to squeeze the Tories out of some seats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgnCisccDys?cc_load_policy=1

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NewsHound

Local elections: ‘It will be tough for us’

By NewsHound | Tue 19th April 2022 - 10:08 am

In the Guardian, deputy political editor Rowena Mason, gave the lowdown on the Lib Dem local election campaign launch in Merton.

“This set of local elections is about gaining and building on ‘footholds’ where the Lib Dems are strong in nearby areas, says one of the party’s senior electoral strategists… The Lib Dems are feeling chipper after surprise byelection wins at Chesham and Amersham and North Shropshire. They believe this test at the local elections in places like Wimbledon will show they have the potential to break new electoral ground in 2023-24.

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NewsHound

Good polling news ahead of May local elections

By NewsHound | Tue 12th April 2022 - 9:41 am

In May, local elections will take place across Scotland and Wales and in many areas of England.

In a Savanta ComRes poll of 2,203 UK adults commissioned by the Lib Dems, one in five traditional Tory voters said the 1.25 per cent rise in National Insurance could put them off supporting the Conservatives. Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said Rishi Sunak has shown he is more conman than Conservative and the hike in will lead to voters taking  their fury to the ballot box in May.

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Dominic Raab: Blue Wall under serious attack from the Lib Dems

By Andy Boddington | Thu 7th April 2022 - 8:17 am

Four weeks today, there are local elections across the country, including for Elmbridge Borough Council where the Tories are already running scared.

In a letter to Conservative members in his Esher and Walton constituency, Dominic Raab warns that:

”We are under serious attack from the Lib Dems. We are now their top target seat in the country!”

In a letter co-signed by the Chairman of the Esher and Walton Conservative Association, Raab shows he is not only running scared, he’s running broke:

“Unless our local Esher and Walton Conservative Association can raise significant funding, we risk losing ground in the local elections in May, which would undermine our position locally.”

He called on Conservatives to help put bricks back into the Blue Wall by making donations of between £20 and £5,000.

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NewsHound

Farron & Morgan: We’re the party that backs British farmers

By NewsHound | Sun 13th March 2022 - 10:30 am

The Lib Dems are gearing up to win over farmers in the May elections when eyes will be on the blue walls of rural heartlands in places like Somerset, Herefordshire and Westmorland – key Lib Dem, Conservative battlegrounds in May.

The Liberal Democrats have put the Conservatives’ former rural heartlands on notice at their conference this weekend. It comes as the party has passed sweeping reform aimed at targeting the farming community that is “fed up with being taken for granted by the Government”.

The push to win the farming community comes after the North Shropshire by-election which caused a political earthquake in true blue Shropshire.

Alongside the “Back British Farmers” party policy reform the Liberal Democrats have also launched specialised farmers campaigning packs for local Lib Dems to gain support from farmers and paint true blue rural heartlands in orange diamonds.

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