A blog by Luke Akehurst about politics, elections, and the Labour Party - With subtitles for the Hard of Left. Just for the record: all the views expressed here are entirely personal and do not necessarily represent the positions of any organisations I am a member of.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Council by-elections

Apologies for the late reporting of this week’s council by-elections. I was busy getting married and going on honeymoon, which seemed a bit more of a priority!

There were three by-elections on Thursday (though technically the Somerset one was a deferred election, delayed from 2 May by the death of the previous UKIP candidate). The results were extraordinarily contrasting:

Rawmarsh Ward, Rotherham MBC. UKIP gain from Lab. UKIP 1143 (46.5%, +46.5), Lab 1039 (42.3%, -24), Con 107 (4.4%, -8.5), BNP 80 (3.3%, -17.6), TUSC 61 (2.5%, +2.5), LD 28 (1.1%, +1.1). Swing of 35.3% from Lab to UKIP since 2012. This shows that with the right local circumstances UKIP can be a threat in safe Labour areas as well as Tory ones. This is in Wentworth & Dearne constituency.

Coker Division, Somerset CC. Con gain from LD (notional). Con 1303 (37.8%, -4.8), LD 1079 (31.3%, -14.1), UKIP 702 (20.4%, +20.4), Lab 195 (5.7%, +5.7), Green 165 (4.8%, +4.8). Swing of 4.7% from LD to Con since 2009. The solid Tory performance in holding onto control of Somerset on 2 May confirmed. NB there were boundary changes in this division.

Melcombe Regis Ward, Weymouth & Portland BC. Lab gain from Con. Lab 279 (26.4%, +7.9), Con 258 (24.5%, -9), Ind 204 (19.4%, +19.4), LD 170 (16.1%, -13.3), Green 143 (13.6%, -5.3). Swing of 8.5% from Con to Lab since 2012. Another strong Labour performance in the South Dorset constituency (Labour held from 2001-2010) following on from five county council gains on 2 May.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Coker was previously a LibDem seat - though the boundary changes helped the Tories.

The opposite of what you wrote ;)

12:30 am, May 20, 2013

 
Blogger Luke Akehurst said...

Have amended

4:36 pm, May 20, 2013

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There's always some excuse!

On a serious note, that UKIP gain is very troubling. The Labour Party must make no ideological concessions at all to their vile agenda. As we have seen, that will only encourage them.

Instead, UKIP must be out-organised.

4:43 pm, May 20, 2013

 

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