Tomorrow's by-election for the Sitwell Ward on the Rotherham MBC is the only one I'm aware of. It marks the start of a quiet month for by-elections before the busy month of September. The Labour leadership election and by-elections in all-wards of the Exeter and Norwich City Councils will give us political nerds plenty to discuss as the nights draw in.
Back to this week; the by-election in Sitwell was called following the death of Conservative Cllr. Michael Clarke. He was one of only 10 Tories on the 63 seat Council, which is currently controlled by Labour. No matter what happens tomorrow the reds will still enjoy a huge majority in Rotherham, but they should be quietly confident of adding another Councillor to their 49 strong group. Although Clarke himself easily won Sitwell in 2008, the Conservatives held the ward by a much smaller margin when it was contested in May. This may be due to the fact the Liberal Democrats did not stand this year and their support may have drifted to Labour. General Election turnout, and UKIP fielding a candidate, would have also disadvantaged the Tories, and they have a fight if they want to hang on tomorrow. Given the recent performances of both parties in by-elections Labour could well gain another Council seat off the Conservatives. Although there will be a Lib Dem candidate this time around their current polling figures suggest they might not make much of and impact. The Labour candidate is the same Judy Dalton who came within 500 votes of winning a seat in May. Whatever the result, there will be a round up here on Friday.
Sitwell (Rotherham) | ||
Candidate | 2008 | 2010 |
Christopher Middleton | 58.5% | 41.5% |
Abdul Razaq | 22% | - |
Judy Dalton | 19.5% | 34.6% |
John Wilkinson | - | 12.3% |
David Ridgeway | - | 11.6% |
The Conservatives held the seat. I'll do a short blog post tomorrow. Lib Dems did very badly...
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