Thursday 15th saw eight principal council by-elections and a pair of elections out in the towns. Of the eight, the six in England produced no changes, whilst both of the contests on the Isle of Anglesey resulted in seats changing hands.
First, the six no-change results. Our best result of the evening came from the Horndean Downs ward of East Hampshire, where candidate Terence Port and the local Lib Dem team added just short of fourteen per cent to their vote-share and ran the defending Tories to within forty votes of a fun upset. Onwards and upwards, team! Our vote also proved resilient in Hammersmith and Fulham’s Town, where an influx of Labour activists, time, and money, pushed us from second- to third-place by eighty-five votes, whilst the Conservatives held the seat by around 350. However, our share of the vote held up well, we took over twenty per cent, which is a healthy base from which to keep building. The two remaining Conservative holds were both definitive, with sixty-seven per cent of the vote in Waltham Forest’s Larkswood, and 45% in Ashford’s Tenterden South. Labour also held two on the night, defending the Oxfordshire division of Cowley and Littlemore with sixty-four per cent of the vote and Corby’s East ward with seventy-one per cent.
The two seats that changed hands in Anglesey on Thursday were Gwngyll, an Independent gain from Plaid, and Llanbedrgoch, where PC evened the score by gaining from an Independent. So, a score draw on Ynys Mon rounds off our principal results.
Finally, two results from the towns. An Independent pinched a seat from us on Wareham Town Council by thirty-one votes, and we technically gained one back when Lib Dem Mark Waudby was returned unopposed to Rawcliffe Parish Council on Monday 9th.
There are just a pair of principal council by-elections reported to ALDC for Thursday 19th – one of which is in the nearby Calderdale ward of Warley. The very best of luck to James Baker and the Warley team, and to all of our candidates and campaigners out in the field.