Lib Dems win three seats in Camden Council by-election

Last night the Liberal Democrats passed their first electoral test since forming a coalition Government with the Conservatives. The vote in the Haverstock ward of the London Borough of Camden had been delayed following the death of the Labour Cllr Syed Hoque during his re-election campaign. The Liberal Democrats already held two of the three seats up for election, and managed to snatch the third with a margin of 34 votes. This result goes against the grain of the May 6^th results in Camden where Labour gained 15 seats to take the Council out of No Overall Control. This was mostly at the expense of the Lib Dems who lost half of their 20 seats. Last night's result leaves the Lib Dems as the second largest group with 13 of the 54 seats.

Camden Council
LAB		LD		CON		GRN
30	-1	13	+1	10	-	1	-

 

Candidate	Votes	Vote %
Jill Fraser (E)	1462	16.1%
Matt Sanders (E)	1326	14.6%
Rahel Bokth (E)	1291	14.2%
Sabrina Francis	1257	13.9%
Tom Copley	1202	13.25%
Joynal Uddin	1114	12.3%
Joan Stally	259	2.9%
Tim Frost	250	2.75%
Jane Adele Lawrie	246	2.7%
Paul Grader	240	2.6%
Robert Ricketts	236	2.6%
Sean Thompson	181	2%

This result should please party strategists worried about how the coalition agreement would affect them as a seemingly significant portion of their voter's were against the decision to join the Conservatives in Government. This result would seem to indicate this was over exaggerated in the media and their vote, at least at a local level, will hold up. The next test will come tomorrow with the Thirsk & Malton by-election but as I wrote yesterday I doubt we'll see anything drastic happen in North Yorkshire. If the Lib Dems' vote holds up again then the two results combined should help them quell any scaremongering foretelling their imminent demise.