This week’s by-election results: Burnley and Southwark

Yesterday, Labour gained a seat from the Lib Dems in Burnley and held a seat in the London Borough of Southwark.

Burnley BC, Rosegrove with Lowerhouse:

Lab 521 (43.1; +11.8)
BNP 288 (23.8; +5.5)
LD Kate Mottershead 261 (21.6; -11.8)
Con 81 (6.7; -10.2)
Ind 58 (4.8; +4.8)
Majority 233
Turnout 25%
Lab gain from LD
Percentage change is since May 2010

Southwark LBC, Brunswick Park:

Lab 1981 (65.1; +13.3)
LD Kate Heywood 630 (20.7; -2.0)
Green 231 (7.6; -6.9)
Con 129 (4.2; -6.7)
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition 70 (2.3; +2.3)
Majority 1351
Turnout 34.2%
Lab hold
Percentage change is since May 2010

See the ALDC website for full by-election results and commentary.

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This entry was posted in Council by-elections.
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3 Comments

  • I fear for the number of BNP councillors we may start seeing after May. With Labour still very much a party of the establishment, anybody that refuses to vote for an establishment party may turn to the BNP.

  • Hope I can reassure you Richy. Rosegrove with Lowerhouse is one of the BNP’s strongest wards nationally, it’s elected a BNP councillor in the past. The BNP have consistently polled well there with 30.3% in 2006, 30.7% in 2007 and 31.0% in 2008 before dropping to 18.4% in 2010. The interesting thing is that the number of BNP votes was very similar in all four elections, 555, 489, 491, 509, with only the fact that there was a higher than normal turnout coinciding with GE2010 diluting the BNP support.

    Given that council by-elections have very poor turnouts, another BNP performance of around 500 votes would have had a very strong chance of winning the seat so it’s credit to Bea Foster, Kate Mottershead and their teams for keeping the BNP vote so relatively low.

  • Darren Reynolds 12th Mar '11 - 3:23pm

    Yes, the BNP result is interpreted locally as ‘holding steady’.

    On the other hand, the Labour result will make them extremely happy and the LD result is a very poor performance. Washing all the dirty linen here is probably not appropriate but I think it can be summed up as failing deliver the “end to broken promises”.

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