There was just one by-election this week. It was in a Conservative held seat in Coulby Newham ward in Middlesbrough.
Coulby Newham (Middlesbrough) result:
CON: 49.0% (-0.1)
LAB: 19.9% (-31.0)
LDEM: 18.4% (+18.4)
IND: 6.4% (+6.4)
IND: 6.3% (+6.3)Conservative HOLD.
Chgs. w/ 2019
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) February 20, 2020
Well done to the Lib Dem candidate, Tom Carney, who took 18.4% from Labour from a standing start.
* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.
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31 Comments
Much better than last week. Interesting to see the Conservatives not advancing in the red wall but us advancing in brexitland. Important by-election next week in Duxford so Ed Davey and Mark Pack should be visiting.Pity that Heidi Allen did not go for it though.
Heidi Allen ….
OHH come on !
A Tory- to a TIG’er , to a lim dem in three moves .
(Under 9 mths ) , and no by-election
Is that the best you can think of?
Advancing in brexit land !
The Tories lost 0.1 percent of the vote !
We took it all from labour !
Figures dont lie !
And the remain vote was split , us and 2 indepents (not sure of the local platform they stood on )
Malc poll
Okay, I’ll play …. how is that an advance in brexitland? It just shows the anti Brexit-Crazy Tory vote fracturing more than ever!
It’s been reported that a person acting suspiciously in the area at 6 am on election day turned out to be Tom delivering leaflets. Should he be congratulated for commitment or rebuked for campaigning at an unsuitable time or both?
Depends on if he slammed the letter box and woke me up or not I suppose !
LoL
Malc Poll
PS. We have had candidates in the ward at least twice in recent years, got 200 & 400 votes on larger turnouts.
What a collection of miserable and rather silly comments. By the way the last time we stood in this ward was in May 2016 when we got 48 votes. Well done Tom Carney. And well done for getting up to deliver early morning leaflets.
And just for the record the votes were:
Conservative 689
Labour 279
Liberal Democrat 259
Independent 90
Independent 88
So to sum up your figures Tony…
The Tories are about 55 %.more popular than labour…
We are a gnats whisker away from labour…
And 2 independents managed 2/3 of out total..
Great news , I’m off to celebrate
The above should read 115 %
*TYPO*
Yes, well done Tom for getting early to deliver Good Mornings.
I was once reported to the police for walking around at 5am. A couple of officers appeared in a police car and asked me what I was doing. The conversation did not last long after I showed them my bundle of 200 leaflets featuring an elephant with its trunk tied in a knot and the question: “Have you forgotten something?”
Good Morning leaflets are a two edged sword. Great for getting the last message and reminder out to so many, but at the wrong time of year – winter, when it is dark, cold and often wet, and in the wrong area – usually one with lots of dogs which hear you, bark loud and long from the other side of the letterbox and wake up the family and next door etc. a mechanism that can lose votes as well.
Getting the balance between Eve of Polls and Good Mornings is an important skill for seasoned campaigners.
Despite some rather silly comments by others, bearing in mind the political history of the Ward, this is a good result for us. Not brilliant, but good. A good base to build on.
Do you mean me tim ?
If so name me so I can respond.
Malc Poll
I notice (not reported here) that two seats were lost on Ely Council yesterday, when two Lib Dem Councillors (one long standing, one elected last May) resigned from the party.
Malc Poll: Is that your real name ? Your comments are not easy to follow because of the number of typing errors. I assume 2/3 of out poll could mean 2/3 of our poll but it is unclear. The TIG was established because the Lib Dems seemed to be dead and a new party might do better but when that seemed not be the case it was not unreasonable to join them. All these petty points rather discredit the person making them. There are so many important issues that need to be discussed.
@ Nvelope2003
Quote ”
Malc Poll: Is that your real name ? Your comments are not easy to follow because of the number of typing errors. I assume 2/3 of out poll could mean 2/3 of our poll but it is unclear”
End Quote
Yes , Malc Poll is my real name (or rather abbreviated forms of them )
And yes I, I ment 2 out of 3 of our polling .
@nvelope2003
Quote
“The TIG was established because the Lib Dems seemed to be dead and a new party might do better but when that seemed not be the case it was not unreasonable to join them. ”
End Quote
The Lib Dems seemed to be dead ? , we lost every defector that joined , and minus 1 MP at election time .
Can you tell me what’s changed since the election , as all I see is the same mistakes repeated over and over , campaign to campaign .
To quote Gina Miller ” We are ALL brexiteers now ” , the party got slammed by the electorate at the election ,
“Bollocks to Brexit” …. Definitely “Bollocks to That” was the vote! . Seen by the electorate as attempt to override a mandate.
Tell me what’s to be positive about these results (Middlesborough , an Ex steel city) , Labour for as long as I rem goes Tory.
Do you not get it ……
The person who masquerades as Malc Poll should be removed from contributing here because (1) he does not use his real name and (2) he is a pain in the bottom and clearly not a person who has the interests of this party at heart. If you want to criticise (and I do enough of that where I think it’s genuinely due) , don’t pour scorn on a candidate who has worked hard day after day and got an increased vote in an area which is as difficult for us as any. Building at local level. The hard graft. That is the future, at least for the time being. If you don’t like it, go away!
Wait a minute here Tony ! (And that’s the polite version )
1 I am a card carrying member of the party I’ll put my name in orange if you like ! .
2 My voice and vote speaks as loud as yours does .
3 If I’m considered a pain in the back side …. I’ll wear that as a badge of honour ! , all you are trying to do is stifle me as “my views dont fit with yours ” , I haven’t seen you engage with me on any point .
4 if your banning me for use of a non de plume , you better ban NVEPLOE2003 as well , I doubt that is their real name either !
5 I WASNT pouring scorn upon him (I applaud the effort , truly! ), I am trying to be a realist and pouring scorn upon the partys position that has lead us to this juncture . Coming third isn’t to be celebrated , had we polled more than labour, then I’d have been more than satisfied.!
For a party with LIBERAL and DEMOCRAT in its name , you appear to be neither.
Malc Poll
Malc Poll:
and the same can be said of virtually EVERY election campaign by an opposition party. The WHOLE POINT of fighting elections as the opposition is that you seek a fresh mandate that overrides the previous one. The Opposition fighting an election saying, “We must respect the outcome of the last election, so we shall keep all the policies of the outgoing government.” Doesn’t happen.
There were a lot of reasons we did badly, and I don’t think our Brexit policy was one of them. We failed to make enough progress in our target seats mostly because of fear of Corbyn. And this, as it happens, is also the principal reason the Tories won seats like Middlesborough. Of course, Brexit was a factor, with the siren call of “Get Brexit done” appealing to the Tories’ new friends in the North. But don’t forget that Corbyn himself is a Brexiteer at heart. Given a choice between a Janus Man and a true believer, it makes sense that they voted as they did.
Another factor in our failure was the more than usually hostile media environment in which we fought the election. This included the vicious attacks on our leader, and being deliberately sidelined or stitched up in debates. A media strategy to deal with this will be necessary if we are to do better at the next election.
And we also had to deal with a Labour Party that was more interested in eliminating the competition (i.e. us) than defeating the opposition. Hence they continued to campaign in Wimbldeon and F&GG even when it was obvious that we had become the main challenger to the Tories there. If RLB wins the Labour leadership election, we are going to need to learn how to deal with this, as well as the aforementioned fear of the Hard Left that seems to drive people to vote Tory, however much we say we wouldn’t let a Hard Left Labour party into power.
None of this has anything to do with a good local by-election result in Middlesborough. No-one is suggesting that this reault means we are going to make masses of gains at the next election. It’s a step, and we rebuild one step at a time.
Correction: The Middlesbrough (correct spelling) Parliamentary seat is actually one brick in the Red Wall still intact.
@ Alex
I agree the point of opposition is to oppose the government, and hold it to account .
BUT
Its was a referendum to be enacted upon .
I’m 45 and that’s the first referendum I’ve voted in ever , at that point , you oppose the 17.4 million who voted for it .
And then seek a mandate to over ride it .
That’s 15 million (at best ) less voters INSTANTLY .
The media I dont want to get into , I’m just going to say as a brexiteer, the Question Time audiences with plants ect and remain biased panels was if you wish to call it bias , I’d agree totally .
We cant keep telling people they didnt know what they are /were voting .
IE , your thick
Malc Poll
@ Alex
Fear of Corbyn may exist in the m25
No fear of him whatsoever in the north .
Mines a 60 % leave seat , a snowball has a better chance in hell than me selling “revoke” as a policy , Heywood And Middleton
How could I defend that !
Which went Tory
My constituency Heywood / Middleton is a 60% leave seat…
How can I defend a “revoke ” policy when we haven’t even left and had thebreferndum fulfilled
I was think of wring an article on the labour contest .
I’ll just post it short here .
REB L-B – Corbyn Socialist (more of the same)
Kier S – Politically toxic around here for being Labours brexit secretary and wont carry a north vote .
Lisa N – outside but the only real chance labour have recovering for 10 years .
And to go back to where we started how long are we out for then ?
I hope we have all eaten or at least heard of warburton Bread.
I know Jonathon warburton… I worked out his bakery on distribution side deliving it .
He knew not only my name (as a zero hr agency contract , bought me dinner and sat with me to ask “how are you finding it ect ”
The BOSS buying an agency worked a meal and asking how it was going ..
I didnt know who he was at the time , but I never got sent home after !
Listen to the small people , get respect and they will fallow is the fable
Malc Poll
Malc Poll: are you a closet Corbynista? That’s the only possible explanation for your claim, contradicted by virtually every impartial observer and even Labour candidates themselves, that Corbyn wasn’t a problem in the North of England. And whatever you think about the Lib Dems’ Revoke policy, it cannot have had anything to do with the Tories winning seats from Labour in the North of England (which is how the Tories won the election). We’re talking about voters who switched directly from Labour to the Tories. The Lib Dems probably didn’t even come onto their radar, especially as we didn’t do much ground campaigning there. (BTW the same sort of voters also exist here in the South-East, and may have helped the Tories over the line in some of the seats we were targeting or defending.)
I am as far away from a corbinista as it gets !
I live in a red brick part of the wall labour love (and I’ve never voted labour since Blair’s first term ) , I usually abstain , this time I held my nose and voted tory to see brexit through .
I’ve spoken LOTS to dog walkers while walking dog about about it .
30/40 years a voter , holding their nose and voting tory same as I did to see brexit through .
Voting tory is not my natural ground.
I usually sit in the middle of the road , internationalist rather than european slant .
I do not believe in free broadband for all , neither re-public ownership of utilities .
If that makes me a corbinista , so be it