There were seven principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 17th November. We held three seats and lost one to the Tories. The SNP held one seat, the Tories gained one from Independent and Labour gained one from Plaid. There was one parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC, a Lib Dem hold. 

In Warrington we were on our third by-election in 7 months in Poulton North. Avid readers of this column will remember our first success in a Labour facing ward in July. Unfortunately our excellent popular councillor died shortly after the by-election and triggered a third election in the Ward. A tribute leaflet was the first to hit the doormat but the campaign revolved around issues of trust. In July Labour claimed that the Lib Dems had colluded with developers in an unpopular planning decision in the area. They were forced to retract the story and were fined by the courts. In this by-election Labour continued with their innuendo. We could simply state that they had been found guilty of lying.
Having canvassed the ward heavily earlier in the year we focussed our doorstep work on talking to our existing, identified support.  A good, well deserved hold.

Elsewhere in the North West things did not go as well. In Ribble Valley’s two councillor Salthill ward we lost by four votes. The Tories normally top the poll in the ward with us picking up the second seat, but with just one vacancy we didn’t hold on. Our activists reported that the Tories were using their mobile phones as part of the knocking up process and using celebrity phone knocking, in this case Baroness Warsi on the relatively small Asian vote.

In Redcar and Cleveland we took both seats in Zetland ward in last years locals,  one off the Tories and one off Labour. Our existing and excellent councillors then had to resign following a qualification issue (more about this in a later column) . One, Ron Harrison was eligible to restand in the by-election and was joined by 23 year old, now Cllr  Josh Mason. Both Labour and the Tories fought hard. The Tories only used the name of one of their candidates on the posters and seemed to accept that we would retain at least our existing councillor – targeting the second seat. Labour stood candidates that didn’t live in the ward. We focussed on canvassing -knocking on every door in the ward. The double victory is a tribute both to our council team and excellent MP.

Other Elections

Glasgow City Council UA, Hillhead
Isle of Wight UA, West Wight
Wrexham UA, Ruabon

There were four principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 10th November. There was a Lib Dem gain from the Tories, two Labour holds and a Labour gain from Respect. There were no parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC. 

In Ipswich we took revenge on the Tories for losses last May. St Margaret’s ward  was first won in 1994 but we started to take control in 1999 and have had all three councillors for the ward from then onwards. In May our elderly sitting councillor stood down for Cathy French to pick up the baton. Along with many others across the country she lost in May. The Tory victor, perhaps not expecting her success, resigned after four months citing lack of support from her Tory colleagues. 

We pulled together with support from across Suffolk, pounded the streets, used a bolder Focus style and phoned knock up over 800 households on the day. The Tories fought hard but this was the sixth defeat for their candidate. This leaves the overall political balance of the 48-member Ipswich Council as Labour 28, Conservatives 15 and Liberal Democrats 5.

In the St Marys Ward in Islington we threw the kitchen sink at the election. We pulled a huge amount of support and effort in from all across London and failed to get the turnaround in support that we had hoped.  This was partly because of the number of Labour activists that hit the street and partly because of their negative scaremongering. We had much to be proud of including delivering target mail to the 1000 plus new voters that were added to the register on the Friday before polling day. 

It’s clear that the Tories are again vulnerable and Labour, fighting dirty are a tougher prospect and we may need to develop new techniques and approaches over the coming months to deal with them.

Other principal elections:

Redbridge LBC, Aldborough
Birmingham City Council, Sparkbrook

There were four principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 3rd November. There was a Lib Dem gain from Labour, two Tory holds and an SNP hold . There were no parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC.

 
The Inverness South ward by-election ends a run of poor Scottish by-election results, and will be used to encourage activists to keep going to the close of poll for some time to come, seven votes being the margin of victory.

The sitting Labour councillor was jailed for a year for benefit fraud totalling £43,000 . It perhaps is indicative of the different political atmosphere that STV elections generate that this was hardly mentioned in any of the campaign literature from any of the parties. Labour were not in contention in a by-election situation in the ward, and given the extensive media coverage of the trial alienating voters potential second preference voters was not top of anybody’s campaign plan.
There was no big issue in the campaign other than who was the best person for the job but as is usual the SNP did glossy leaflets sloganizing. We focussed on the nitty gritty of the issues that local people raised with us.

The ward is urban by Highland standards including the southern suburbs of Inverness but at 522sq km it is larger than 42 English Authorities. It will therefore surprise few that we did six editions of some Focuses to reflect local concerns.Given the size of the ward our campaign was strong on door knocking and postal vote activity, but we stll did target letters, a survey, two leaflets to every household, a blue letter and a "Good Morning". A feature of the campaign was a dedicated poster team as the Highland local authority take a relaxed attitude to poster boards on lampposts and it is a battle at every election. This is in not unique, Birmingham, for instance, have the same traditions. It is always strange to realise in the aftermath that many candidates had more Correx poster boards than votes.

This is only our second by-election gain off Labour this year.

Other elections:

Argyll and Bute UA, Oban North and Lorn
East Staffordshire DC, Yoxall
Leicestershire CC, Syston Ridgeway

There were six principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 27th October. There was one Labour hold, two Tory holds and one Lib Dem hold. There were two Labour gains from Tory. There were no parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC. 

In the Bude North and Stratton ward of Cornwall County Council we held our seat convincingly, but - because we were starting from such a high mark - we officially suffered a swing against us of 4.4%. This wasn't due to the Tories (they lost vote share too) but because of additional candidates - in this case Labour and a local Independent.

Our message was threefold, as ever:
1.    The candidate: Although not a sitting councillor, our candidate David Parsons is “Mr Bude”. He has great ties to the town going back generations and has been very closely involved with local projects that mattered.
2.    We attacked the Tories who run the council: for the cuts and for waste.
3.    Our squeeze message was everywhere.
We did three full focuses, a set of target letters to definites and probables, a letter to postal voters, blue letters, good mornings and polling day literature. We also got useful information from 30% of the electors during the campaign and knocked on virtually every door.

The Tories did comparatively little and what they did appears to have been of pretty poor quality. With a better candidate than in 2009 they still went backwards. The Labour candidate was pretty much a one man band. Despite doing little (and our squeeze) he picked up just under 8% simply by being on the ballot paper.

We often have strong sitting councillors who are known for their work battling the administration and sticking up for their local area. But it's no good doing the work unless people get to hear about it month in/month out through the press and through our leaflets. Seats are not going to be won by a single person working flat out any more.

Other elections:

Lancashire CC, Wyreside
Newcastle Under Lyme BC, Newchapel
North Lanarkshire UA, Coatbridge North and Glenboig (ward 6)
North Yorkshire CC, Thornton Dale and the Wolds
Walsall MBC, Bloxwich East

There were eight principal local council by-elections held on Thursday 20th October and one on Tuesday 18th. There were four Labour holds, three Tory holds and one Lib Dem hold. There was one Independent gain from Tory. There was one parish or town council by-election results reported to ALDC,  a Lib dem gain from the Conservatives. 

In a pretty busy week for by-elections the highlight was undoubtedly holding our seat in the Bookham South , By-election in Mole Valley District Council in Surrey. Bookham South is three Councillor ward where we held all three until last May, when we lost one. One of our remaining two then died – hence the by-election.

We ran a pretty standard campaign with a Focus before the campaign started announcing Anne Howarth’s death avoiding expense limits. Then three full A3, full ward elections leaflets, a target letter and black (they didn’t have a blue drum!) letters to both PVs and non PVs. PVs were reminded, there were “Good  Mornings” and 2 full knock-ups plus some phone follow-up.

A recurring feature in recent success was the focus on canvassing which was done very thoroughly – around 90% contact was achieved.
The Tories put a lot of effort in and the MP was spotted several times. UKIP also made an effort. Good for morale and it leaves us the largest Group as a result.

In the London Borough of Bromley, we had a creditable result in the Shortlands By-election. There were several reasons to be cheerful; Lib Dem vote share rose by 6.4%; we moved decisively from 4th place to second place and the Lab and Green vote shares were down. 

In two elections we failed to stand candidates, Stafford and Great Yarmouth. We have argued week in, week out,in this column, win or lose standing a candidate is always the right thing to do. This applies to the Police Commissioner Elections as much as any other. The Constitution makes it plain:

The objectives of the Party shall be to secure the election of Liberal Democrats as Members of Parliament, UK Members of the European Parliament and members of local and other elected public authorities.

Other elections:

Mansfield DC, Park Hall
Cheshire West and Chester UA, Ellesmere Port Town
Nottingham City Council, Bridge
Salford MBC, Eccles
Great Yarmouth BC, Bradwell South and Hopton
Stafford BC, Walton
Adur DC, Cokeham - on Tuesday