Last night, Labour continued their strong performances in Council by-elections as they received almost three quarters of the vote to gain a seat from the Conservatives in Bassetlaw (Nottinghamshire). The Tories themselves held two (yes, two…we'll come to that in a minute!) seats in Kent with the reds snatching second place in both contests.
We'll start in Bassetlaw, where the Worksop North East ward was vacant following the disqualification of Conservative Councillor Bill Graham for non-attendance. Graham narrowly held his seat in 2008 in a straight battle with Labour, but the reds hold the other two seats in this multi-member ward. Last May, Labour won here comfortably and if the Tories were to hold this seat yesterday they would have required a 20% swing towards them from that result. True to form, the swing was in the other direction as Labour gained the seat with an even bigger share of the vote. John Anderton was easily elected with almost 75% of vote, and this puts the current Conservative minority administration in Bassetlaw under serious pressure. They only have a one seat advantage over Labour with three Independent Councillors holding the balance of power. Labour look set to take control in Bassetlaw in May's partial Council elections.
Bassetlaw District Council | ||||||||
CON | LAB | IND | ||||||
23 | -1 | 22 | +1 | 3 | - | |||
Worksop North East (Bassetlaw) | ||||||||
By-Election Candidate | Votes | Vote % | +/- | |||||
John Anderton (LAB) | 1198 | 74.0% | +10.0% | |||||
Barry Bowles (CON) | 317 | 19.6% | -16.4% | |||||
Mark Hunter (LD) | 28 | 1.7% | +1.7% | |||||
Geoff Coe (IND) | 75 | 4.6% | +4.6% | |||||
In Kent, there were actually two by-elections last night. We knew about the County Council vacancy for Romney Marsh, however no-one outside of Kent appeared to have realised that there was a by-election for Lydd, Shepway DC taking place as well. The death of Conservative Cllr. Willie Richardson caused both vacancies but the received wisdom was that there would be no by-election for the District seat as it fell under the six month rule.
Anyway, on paper both looked like safe Conservative wards and the blues easily held them. In the County Council by-election Carole Waters increased her party's vote by 7.6%, probably at the expense of UKIP who dropped back from their strong 2009 result. Labour went from fourth to second but they weren't close to challenging the Tories for the win. In the District seat Tony Hills won the seat for the Tories with just under half the vote; a similar share to the 2007 result. At the last election the Shepway Independents were the main challengers but as they did not stand. Labour, however, did when they haven't in previous years. Despite their being another Independent on the ballot Labour took the bulk of the local party's vote share and came from no-where to take second place. The Liberal Democrats just managed third ahead of the Independent candidate. There are full elections in Shepway this May where the Conservatives will be defending their big majority.
Romney Marsh (Kent) | |||
By-Election Candidate | Votes | Vote % | +/- |
Carole Waters (CON) | 2222 | 54.1% | +7.6% |
Doug Suckling (LAB) | 748 | 18.2% | +11.5% |
Val Loseby (LD) | 479 | 11.7% | -1.4% |
David Cammegh (UKIP) | 420 | 10.2% | -13.3% |
Rochelle Saunders (IND) | 238 | 5.8% | -0.8% |
N/C (Shepway Independents) | 0 | 0.0% | -3.6% |
Lydd (Shepway) | ||
By-Election Candidate | Votes | Vote % |
Tony Hills (CON) | 591 | 49.3% |
Donald Russell (LAB) | 247 | 20.6% |
Ted Last (LD) | 184 | 15.3% |
Rochelle Saunders (IND) | 177 | 14.8% |
Shepway By-elections since Election 10
ReplyDeleteCon 49% Lab 21% Lib Dem 15% Ind 15%
Kent By-elections since Election 10
Con 52% Lab 26% Lib Dem 9% UKIP 9% Green 3% Ind 2%
Bassetlaw By-elections since Election 10
Lab 70% Con 24% Lib Dem 3% Ind 3%
Labour contested Lydd in 2003 and polled circa 20% , in 1999 they had an elected councillor in the ward polling 30% of the vote .
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