A remarkably unremarkable night of by-elections

I have to confess that when I previewed this week's by-elections I wasn't expecting them to be an interesting bunch. Of all the weeks I could have been working on a Thursday night it certainly wasn't the worst. All three elections resulted in holds for the defending parties, and contrary to popular reports, the underlying vote shares were quite stable for Council by-elections.

I'll start in Kentish Town, Camden where the result was so popular the ward actually trended on twitter! This was the third election to take place in Camden since the General Election, with the previous two resulting in wins for the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives. This week it was Labour's turn to score a victory in the London Borough as the comfortably held this seat. The vacancy in Kentish Town had arisen due to the death of Cllr. David Horan who was elected in May as Labour gained all three seats in the ward from the Lib Dems. Nick Russell was one of the defeated Liberal Democrats and he was fighting his third Kentish Town election in two years. Russell won a by-election in 2008 and served two years as a Camden Councillor. This could be part of the reason the Lib Dem vote only dropped by 3.6% from May, a fall which doesn't warrant the term crushed. Labour's very impressive result was mostly down to their ability to pick off votes from all the parties as they seem to have recovered well in urban seats since the General Election. The Conservatives and the Greens were the main victims of Labour's 17.7% increase as Jenny Headlam-Wells cruised to a resounding victory. Her campaign was certainly aided by one of the best election leaflets delivered all year!

Camden Borough Council
LAB		LD		CON				GRN
30	-	13	-	10		-		1		-
Kentish Town (Camden)
Candidate					Votes		Vote %		+/-
Jenny Headlam-Wells (E)					1411		53%		17.7%
Nick Rusell					715		26.9%		-3.6%
Naomi Aptowitzer					349		13.1%		-4.7%
Will Blair					186		7%		-5.1%

The other top-tier by-election on Thursday was in the Scottish Council of South Lanarkshire. There was a vacancy in the East Kilbride West ward as the sitting Labour Councillor, Michael McCann, was elected as the new MP for East Kilbride, Strathaven & Lesmahagam in May. As there will be a referendum on whether Britain will adopt the Alternative Vote voting system for Westminster by-elections in Scotland are viewed with heightened interest. They use the Single Transferable Vote system for local council elections, which essentially becomes AV when there is only one seat up for grabs. Sadly for election geeks these vacancies keep arising in pretty solid Labour wards. Alan Scott comfortably held the seat for Labour, although he did need all stages to officially see off his challengers. The result wasn't too bad for the Scottish National Party either as, although they didn't come near to winning, recent Holyrood Voting Intention polls have shown them miles behind Labour. The SNP will be aiming to gain a seat on the Moray Council in a couple of weeks, so their performance in that will give further indication of how they will perform next May. Plus, it should be a better example of AV at work!

South Lanarkshire Council
LAB		SNP		CON				LD			IND
32	-	23	-	8		-		2	-		2	-
E Kilbride W (S Lanarks)
Candidate					Votes		Vote %			+/-
Alan Scott (E)					847		41.4%			0.8%
Pat McGuire					571		27.9%			-2.4%
Ian Harrow					403		19.7%			5.7%
Raymond Burke					82		4.0%			0.2%
Brian Jones					71		3.5%			-0.7%
Gordon Smith					70		3.4%			-3.7%

		Stage [Quota 1023]
Candidate	1stP%	1	2	3	4	5	6
Alan Scott (LAB)	41.4%	847	863	873	892	973	1297
Pat McGuire (SNP)	27.9%	571	587	606	641	761
Ian Harrow (CON)	19.7%	403	427	442	455
Raymond Burke (GRN)	4.0%	82	85	100
Brian Jones (EKA)	3.5%	71	76
Gordon Smith (LD)	3.4%	70
No-Transfer		6	17	33	254	437	747

Finally, the Liberal Democrats held a seat on the Cheltenham Borough Council. The comfortably defended the Springbank ward despite the inclusion of a Labour and a Green candidate in what is usually a straight fight between the Conservatives and the Lib Dems. The Tories came off worse as their vote dropped by 13.4%. Although the Lib Dems' vote share was also slightly down they still secured almost two thirds of the vote.