A disastrous night for the LibDems as Labour march on

Last night was one to forget for the Liberal Democrats as they performed poorly in a variety of seats. Although they had been doing badly in urban seats were they weren't competitive, this week they failed in a ward they had targeted and lost a rural seat to the Conservatives. Labour were the big winners, gaining two seats off the Conservatives and holding two wards where the Greens have been strong in recent years.

I'll start in Swindon, where Labour gained the Moredon ward from the Conservatives. The Tory Councillor Steph Excell resigned in protest against the proposed cuts to public spending, although how this squares with forcing her Council to pay for a by-election for a 6 month term...! Regardless, Labour took the seat on a 4% swing from May's result and Jenny Millen will hope to make this stick in next year's election. The swing doesn't tell the whole story though as the Tories' vote actually rose 2.6% from the spring. Labour picked up most of their extra votes from the Liberal Democrats, who collapsed from 18% to 5%. I was informed last night that this was the first seat the Conservative have lost in Swindon since 2002. This bodes well for Labour in there quest to reduce the Tories' comfortable majority on the Council.

Labour's other gain was in Coleridge, Cambridge. Although they were expected to win both seats they gained, this one was the easier of the two. They already held the other two seats in this ward and George Owers comfortably added the third last night. This is another example of the Liberal Democrats falling away spectacularly as their vote dropped from 25.5% in May to just 11%. Both Labour and the Conservatives profited, but the reds secured marginally more of the Lib Dems' vote to win the seat.

The by-election in Hulme, Manchester was perhaps the most disappointing of the Liberal Democrats' urban results last night. In May they had managed to force their way above the Greens into second place, apparently without trying. Then this by-election was triggered as the sitting Labour Councillor has caused a three car crash whilst under the influence of alcohol. So with a promising result earlier in the year, and the circumstances surrounding the vacancy, the Lib Dems campaigned in the ward this time. Their reward was to see their vote share drop back to 2008 levels as Labour comfortably held the seat. The Greens re-emerged as Labour's main challengers in Hulme, but they didn't come close to gaining the seat. Amina Lone was elected with over 60% of the vote and Labour look set to easily keep control of Manchester Council next May.

In the Ladywell by-election, Lewisham the Greens were clearly Labour's main worry. They had held all three seats in the ward until May when they struggled to deal with Labour's General Election turnout and lost them all. The Greens clawed back some of their vote share but it wasn't enough to regain a seat. A 1.6% swing from Labour left them 190 votes short as Carl Handley held the seat for his party. Both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives lost votes from May as Labour remain firmly in control of this London Borough.

The most worrying result for the Liberal Democrats came in the Lyth Valley by-election, South Lakeland DC (Cumbria). All summer they have been strong in rural battles with the Conservatives but for the second time in a fortnight their national coalition partners got the better of them. They lost Newton, Swansea two weeks ago on a massive swing as Labour and Plaid Cymru fielded candidates when they previously hadn't. This time it was just Labour who disrupted this ordinarily Tory/Lib Dem battle and their inclusion appears to have made the difference. The Conservatives managed a 6.8% swing to win the seat by just 23 votes as Labour received 32 votes. It will be interesting to see whether Labour run more candidates in wards like this, and if they have this much impact.

I'll finish with a couple of mundane results. Eileen Armstrong held Ponteland East, Northumberland for the Conservatives and replaces her late husband on the Council. Also, in Wales there was an open seat in Carmarthenshire following the death of Independent Councillor Haydn Jones. Plaid Cymru easily beat the Conservatives in a two way battle to gain the seat.

Swindon Borough Council												Manchester City Council
CON		LAB			LD			IND				LAB		LD			CON			IND
40	-1	14	+1		4		-	1		-		62	-	32	-		1	-		1		-
Candidate				Votes		Vote %			+/-			Candidate				Votes			Vote %		+/-
Jenny Millin (E)				887		47.0%			12.1%			Amina Lone (E)				1031			60.6%		14.8%
Toby Elliott				775		41.0%			1.7%			Deyika Nzeribe				451			26.5%		4.6%
William Oram				129		6.8%			6.8%			Grace Baynham				151			8.9%		-14.1%
Chris Ward				98		5.2%			-13.4%			Will Stobart				67			3.9%		-5.2%

 

Lewisham Borough Council												Camarthenshire County Council
LD		LAB			CON			GRN				IG		PC		LAB			PF				LD				IND
12	-	39	-		2		-	1		-		29	-1	30	+1	11	-		2	-			1	-			1	-
Candidate				Votes		Vote %			+/-			Candidate						Votes				Vote %				+/-
Carl Handley (E)				1231		41.4%			3.3%			Eileen Armstrong (E)						843				62.6%				2.1%
Ute Michel				1041		35.0%			6.4%			Andrew Duffield						403				29.9%				1.6%
Ingrid Chetram				314		10.6%			-5.3%			Andy Avery						100				7.4%				2.9%
Ben Appleby				153		5.1%			-4.5%
Helen Mercer				233		7.8%			0.0%

 

Camarthenshire County Council
IG		PC		LAB		PF			LD			IND
29	-1	30	+1	11	-	2		-	1	-		1	-
Candidate							Votes				Vote %
Hazel Evans (E)							638				81.9%
Henrietta Hensher							141				18.1%