Thursday’s by-elections gave us very little to work with, given that we only stood candidates in two of the five principal by-elections that took place. Whilst we understand that local circumstances can often throw up obstacles to a nomination, it is little short of unforgiveable to see candidates in only 40% of possible contests. ALDC’s advice remains the same: always, always, always stand a candidate!

In the two elections that we actually fought, the results were mixed. Whilst the 13% drop in vote in Wandsworth’s Southfields ward looks dramatic, it isn’t outside the percentage change we’ve seen in similar contests, and was enough to hold off the Green Party and UKIP on the night, with the Conservatives holding the seat against a 17% increase for Labour. Buxton Central in the High Peak was another Con-Lab horse race, but Derek John Webb and the local Focus Team held us fairly steady in percentage terms, whilst Labour held the seat by 20 votes against the Tories. Our congratulations to both Lib Dem teams for standing candidates (!), giving our supporters a Lib Dem on the ballot in two tricky seats.

As for the other three, we saw two holds and one change of hands. The Labour Party took the Crockenhill and West Hill ward of Sevenoaks BC from an Independent, whilst the Tories held their seats in Cowden and Hever (Sevenoaks, again), and North Kesteven District Council’s Heckington Rural ward.

Finally, our thanks to good Lib Dems of the Burbage Parish Council, who swept in with a late breaking headline to deliver some good news. Our candidate in St. Catherine’s Maureen Vivien Lynch, stole a march on the Conservatives and took the seat with a healthy majority of 52. Well done to the Burbage team for livening up a slow news day!

As of going to print, ALDC has not received notice of any by-election due for Maundy Thursday (in past times that would have been a given, but no longer). The very best of luck to all of our candidates and campaign teams across the country.

Craig Whittall

craig.whittall@aldc.org

Thursday’s biggest news came from the capital, where established local campaigner Alison Hopkins (pictured, 3rd left) and the Brent Lib Dem team held the Dollis Hill ward against Labour. This victory is the first by-election win in a Labour-facing seat in London since the  general election. 

Alison’s long track record of campaigning in Dollis Hill, having spent 55 of her 57 years in the ward, set her in good stead, with community leaders and long-time local residents providing valuable endorsements in her leaflets. The use of ‘non-politician’ endorsements, both as ‘vox pop’ artwork and as street letter/blue letter authors is something that other parties use effectively in their campaigns, and is a tool that Lib Dems across the country should be making better use of. A particularly effective leaflet in this case came in the form of a timeline of Alison’s involvement in the ward, with photos and community campaigning details going back to the 1970s - firming up the essential message that Alison was by far the most local, and most accomplished, of the candidates on offer. 

There were plenty of issues to choose from in Brent, and Alison’s prior work on saving Brent’s six (of twelve) libraries scheduled for closure, and the Brent Lib Dems dogged work on exposing wasteful spending by the Labour council clearly paid dividends in supressing the eventual Labour vote. A prodigious Tory squeeze knocked nearly 13% off their previous showing, another potential difference-maker when the day was eventually won by just 37 votes. 

Particular emphasis was placed on winning the postal vote, with consistent PV recruitment activities prior to the campaign and an effective blue letter from Alison in the run-up to PV polling day. The emphasis was on door-knocking, with huge ward coverage, including lots of valuable doorstep work from Sarah Teather MP.  The tactical side of the campaign was rounded off with full telling cover, Eve of Poll and targeted Good Morning, and a well-organised box count team on the night. 

The real take-home themes of this crucial victory are consistent doorstep work, a well-prepared postal vote strategy, and the power of endorsements from local residents and community leaders (who are not affiliated with a political party). Our warmest congratulations to Alison and the Brent team, on writing a little bit of post-2010 by-election history!

Elsewhere, there were a further three principal by-elections. The Tories comfortably held Labour off in Hertfordshire County Council’s Waltham Cross Division, the Holland-on-Sea Residents Association kept their seat in St Bartholomew’s ward in Tendring, and, in the only change of hands on the night, West Devon’s Tavistock North ward was taken from the Conservatives by an Independent.

 The very best of luck to all of our candidates and campaigners out in the field.

Craig Whittall
Communications Officer

The winning team in Surbiton Hill - From left: Cllr Liz Green (Deputy Leader of the Council), Edward Davey MP, Cllr John Ayles, Cllr Derek Osbourne (Leader of the Council).

What better start could we have had to Federal Conference than our first gain from Labour in a principal council by-election since the formation of the coalition.

The Borough of Gedling covers a number of towns and villages around the edge of Nottingham, and was the scene of a massive swing to Labour in May when they gained 23 seats and took control. One of those 23 gains was Phoenix ward where sitting Lib Dem councillor Andrew Ellwood lost his seat by just four votes. However, just three months later one of the ward’s Labour councillors resigned after deciding to go off and teach in Mexico.

The by-election was an incredibly hard fought campaign on both sides. Labour swamped the ward with huge numbers of helpers and ran a campaign that focused solely on heavily attacking us on national issues. Instead, we ran a very local campaign emphasising the credentials of Andrew Ellwood. This consisted of regular canvassing along with weekly leaflets using lots of photos and articles about how good a councillor he was for the area. This message contrasted sharply with the lack of commitment from the outgoing Labour councillor after quitting so soon. We managed to get lots of help from surrounding areas, but were still vastly outnumbered by Labour on polling day. However, in the end our message was much more effective and it saw Andrew elected back on to the council.

The other significant by-election for the Lib Dems was our defence of the Surbiton Hill ward in the London Borough of Kingston upon Thames. Surbiton Hill had traditionally been safely Conservative but we gained it by just 103 votes in 2010. The circumstances of the by-election were unfortunate when hugely promising Lib Dem councillor Umesh Parekh had to resign when his new employers decided his job should be politically restricted. The Conservatives put up their former councillor who had expected to be council leader until his defeat, but they were no match for a very effective campaign that saw excellent candidate John Ayles win. The big lesson was to keep knocking on doors. Not only did this gather huge amounts of canvass data, but it also helped to reconnect us with those supporters who had become less enthusiastic about voting for us.

Although the latest by-election results saw the sad loss of a Liberal Democrat seat in Purbeck District Council in Dorset, the results in two other wards were quite encouraging.

The by-election in Lytchett Matravers was in Annette Brooke’s Mid Dorset and North Poole constituency, and was gained from the Conservatives for the first time last year. The by-election was caused by the sudden resignation of that same councillor for health reasons, and this (along with the national situation) conspired to help us lose the seat. However, a hard fought campaign with a good candidate and much regional support kept the swing down to just 5%. Sadly, this now means that the Conservatives move to be the largest party on a council where we have minority control.

In Derbyshire, we had an impressive 11% increase in our vote in a vacancy caused by the death of a local Independent. Sawley is a large village on the Nottinghamshire border and was once good territory for the party. This is the first time the local party has managed to run a campaign on this scale which included regular Focuses, surveys, postal vote letters and plenty of canvassing. As in Dorset, it was achieved thanks to lots of help from the surrounding area (a tip for other by-elections contests is to make sure people from outside of your area come and help). Although we didn’t win, the local party are pleased that their hardwork paid off and they got a result well beyond their highest expectations.

Finally, in Peckham in Southwark we ran another intensive campaign capitalising on the compelling life story of our candidate. Peckham born and bred, Jennifer Blake is a former gang member who has now turned her life around and runs a charity helping local young people get out of lives dominated by guns and gangs. Whilst this was a great campaigning opportunity and her personal story was a major part of the campaign, (much more so than the party she represented), our choice of candidate showed that our campaign was genuinely about the community and trying to improve the area. We were rewarded with the highest increase in the Lib Dem vote in a Labour held ward since July last year (the last being in Darlington).

It’s difficult these days to say “where you work you win,” as many councillors found out in May that working hard certainly doesn’t guarantee you victory anymore. However one thing that’s clear from this week’s by-elections is that running an intensive campaign that genuinely engages voters with issues they care about, (and with a candidate who they can relate to), certainly helps get you nearer to winning.