There was one principal local council by-election held on Thursday 22th September. The Tories held the seat. There were two parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC. One seat was held by the Tories, one by the Lib Dems.
Fenland District Council, in Cambridgeshire, has two Lib Dem councillors. It held a by-election in the Staithe ward on the edge of Wisbech. In 2010 we did not stand a candidate and we had not campaigned there in living memory.
We ran a decent campaign with a survey, postal vote letter, three Focuses plus polling knock up, but as ever we would have benefited from more time on the doorstep. We had no historic data so 20% contact this time was a decent first shout but limited our polling day activity. The Tories we worried, both by our activity and the potential of UKIP and a non-selected Tory standing as an Independent splitting their vote. Labour got very excited pulling in help from as far away as Leeds but their vote was only marginally up.
Quoting Conservative Lord Ashcroft is not a Liberal Democrats first instinct; however some of his recent polling of eight Tory held Lib Dem marginals has suggested that by out working the Tories and Labour on the ground we have significantly boosted our support. In those eight parliamentary seats more voters interviewed thought that we had
a) knocked on their door
b) telephoned them
c) delivered literature to them and
d) sent them direct mail than the Tories or Labour.
Voters asked about their intentions in these specific seats were 13% more likely to vote Lib Dem.
Alternatively this may be to do with voters understanding and continuing to respond to our squeeze messages, but without the high level of activity how would we deliver that squeeze message?
Either way this is positive news.
