In amongst all the bad results, it’s understandable that news from two of the best candidates I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the years has been mostly overlooked. But it’s worth highlighting that Dave Hodgson won re-election as Mayor in Bedford, whilst Zuffar Haq held on to second place in Leicester South.
Congratulations to them both and to their teams.
Here are the result details:
Leicester South
Jonathan Ashworth (Lab) 19,771 (57.8%, +12.2)
Zuffar Haq (LibDem) 7,693 (22.5%, -4.4)
Jane Hunt (Con) 5,169 (15.1%, -6.3)
Abhijit Pandya (UKIP) 994 (2.9%, +1.4)
Howling Laud Hope (Monster Raving Loony) 553 (1.6%, n/a)
Bedford Mayor:
Dave Hodgson (LibDem) 19,966 (37.7%, +10.9 on by-election in which he was elected)
John Guthrie (Con) 17,501 (33.0%, +7.1)
Michelle Harris (Lab) 11,197 (21.1%,+11.2)
Tony Hare (Ind) 3,113 (5.9%, -6.4)
Greg Paszynski (Green) 1,211 (2.3%, -1.1)
Second round
Dave Hodgson (LibDem) 24,921 (56%)
John Guthrie (Con) 19,325 (44%)
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10 Comments
Well done Zuffar Haq in Leicester South.
Well done Zuffar: an excellent result in difficult circumstances.
A brilliant result from Dave, in an area where we only have twelve councillors – there must be some good campaigning lessons for the rest of us in his achievement? Most of us know the resoures available when you only hold a few wards are pretty stretched just holding on (particularly last week), so real kudos for having mounted such a successful campaign across the whole of his council area!
The vote share change figures above don’t look right, BTW – surely they should add back to zero?
The Conservative vote was down around half, by ~5000, which is odd considering the Conservative vote held up so well across the Country. The turnout wasn’t down by 50%, so who did they vote for instead then?
So, despite a few thousand tories voting for their coalition chums, Labour still increased their majority significantly in a seat the Lib Dems won in 2004.
Sorry for the double posting – I was referring to Leicester South.
Ian: There were rather more independent candidates in the Mayor by-election, hence the net changes for those this time round don’t balance out.
@Ian: In the 2009 Mayoral by-election there were two independent candidates, in this one only one. That’s why the numbers don’t add up to zero.
For information here are the percentages in the second round in 2009:
Dave Hodgson (Lib Dem): 13,555 (54.0%)
Parvez Akhtar (Conservative): 11,543 (46.0%)
Congratulations are in order to both Zuffar and Dave.
In Leicester we lost 6 of our 7 seats and polled 6000 votes in the Mayoral election so some very differential voting was going on.
Having worked in Leicester I can safely say that Zuffar is an absolutely outstanding candidate and man… Its understandable why we held second and didn’t see a huge collapse in our vote. We worked harder than the other parties and were very visible, this can make all the difference.
Dave, fantastic! Extremely pleased that people recognise his contribution to Bedford both as Mayor and previously.