Barnsley Central wasn’t the only by-election Labour won on Thursday…

Understandably, the focus yesterday was on Labour's win in Barnsley Central; and the Liberal Democrats poor showing. However, Labour's performance in Thursday's Council by-elections was arguably a more impressive. Not only did they hold both the seats they were defending with increased majorities but they gained a seat each from the Conservatives and Plaid Cymru. The Tories managed to defend the final seat without any fuss.

The big result of the night was clearly in Cardiff. The by-election for the Riverside ward took place following the resignation of Plaid Cymru Councillor Gwenllian Lansdown, who is moving to Powys after her recent marriage. The Welsh Nationalists selected 'Mr Riverside' as their candidate and they had a healthy notional lead so they looked good value to hang on to this seat. As it was Labour managed an, almost direct, 14% swing to comfortably win the by-election. Iona Jordan received just under half the vote as she recorded a 601 vote majority. The result will not help the current Liberal Democrat/Plaid coalition in charge of Cardiff as their majority is cut to just five in the 75 seat Council.

Cardiff Council
LD		CON		LAB			PC			IND
34	-	17	-	14		+1	6		-1	4		-
Riverside
By-Election Candidate					Votes			Vote %			+/-
Iona Gordon (E)					1700			46.8%			+14.4%
Steve Garrett					1099			30.3%			-13.6%
James Roach					369			10.2%			-2.0%
Yvan Maurel					277			7.6%			+7.6%
Gwilym Owen					187			5.1%			-6.4%

Labour also recorded an impressive gain in Wigan as they took a seat from the Conservatives. The vacancy for the Wigan Central ward arose following the resignation of Cllr. Henry Cadman due to ill health, although the Council had already voted against extending his sick leave anyway. In 2008 Cadman was comfortably elected but things have not gone well for the Conservatives in this ward since then. One of Cadman's fellow Tory Councillors in this ward Gareth Fairhurst broke away from the party in 2009 to form an Independent group and last May he stood for re-election as a 'Wigan Independent Conservative'. As a result, Labour were able to gain the seat as the Tory vote split between their current and former candidates. Fairhurst stood again in this by-election and the same thing happened again. This time, however, the winning Labour candidate Laurence Hunt out-polled the combined Conservative plus Independent Conservative vote total, thanks largely to the absence of a BNP candidate. This indicates the Tories are going to struggle to hold their final seat in this ward when it is contested in May regardless of whether Fairhurst stands again. This gain adds another seat to Labour's handsome majority on Wigan Council.

Wigan Central (Wigan)
By-Election Candidate	Votes	Vote %	+/-
Lawrence Hunt (E)	1165	48.6%	+6.4%
Robin Gibson	652	27.2%	+1.2%
Gareth Fairhurst	393	16.4%	-2.2%
Keith Jones	189	7.9%	-0.2%
N/C (BNP)	0	0.0%	-5.2%

Unsurprisingly the Labour candidate Brenden Ryan in the Walkden North, Salford MBC by-election won easily, securing almost three quarters of the vote in the process. The collapse in the Liberal Democrat vote was the most notable aspect of this contest as they lost 14% of their vote share from last May to come last with just 62 votes. In First-Past-The-Post losing heavily isn't necessarily a bad thing if you win small in the important seats. The Liberal Democrats are getting very good at the former; we'll have to wait until 5^th May to see if they can manage the latter.

We here at Britain-Votes.co.uk like a good Scottish by-election for the simple reason that AV results are far more interesting from a psephological perspective than FPTP. So imagine our disappointment when the Kilpartick, West Dunbartonshire by-election, caused by the resignation of Labour Councillor Margaret Bootland for health reasons, was won on first preferences alone! The Labour candidate Lawrence O'Neill received just over 60% of the first preferences and so the count ended after just one round. To be fair, we weren't expected any different considering Labour received over half the first preferences in 2007 and are riding higher in the polls compared to that election. In that respect, the Scottish National Party will be relatively pleased their vote share held steady and Labour didn't pull too far away. They will be hoping this will be repeated in the Scottish Parliament elections in two months time, although as there wasn't a Liberal Democrat candidate in this ward for Labour to take votes from that may be wishful thinking. The win takes Labour back up to 8 Councillors in this 22 seat Council, just one behind the SNP who are running West Dunbartonshire as a minority group.

Finally, the Conservatives easily held March North, Cambridgeshire County Council. The by-election was taking place following the death of Cllr. John West, who secured over 55% of the vote in 2009. Steve County won with a marginally reduced vote share from the last election, but the main story again was the drop in the Liberal Democrat vote. They lost 7% of their vote share from two years ago as Labour pipped them into second place by 5 votes. I'm sure very few will envy anyone standing for the Liberal Democrats in Council elections this May as they seem set to drop back across the country. The Tories have a comfortable majority in Cambridgeshire and full council elections are not due until 2013.

Walkden North (Salford)					March North (Cambridgeshire)
By-Election Candidate	Votes	Vote %	+/-		By-Election Candidate	Votes		Vote %		+/-
Brenden Ryan (E)	1291	72.6%	+21.6%		Steve County (E)	616		52.4%		-3.4%
Chris Bates	209	11.7%	-10.2%		Louis Sugden	282		24.0%		+10.3%
Laurence Depares	125	7.0%	-2.7%		William McAdam	277		23.6%		-6.9%
Keith Fairhurst	92	5.2%	+5.2%
Susan Carson	62	3.5%	-14.0%

 

West Dunbartonshire Council
SNP		LAB			IND			SSP
9	-	8	-		4	-		1		-
Kilpatrick
By-Election Candidate				Votes			Vote %		+/-
Lawrence O'Neill (E)				1382			60.1%		+4.2%
Frank NcNiff				758			32.9%		+0.1%
Douglas Boyle				161			7.0%		-1.3%
N/C (SSP)				0			0.0%		-3.0%