It seems only fitting that the 182nd birthday of Leo Tolstoy would be an electoral epic.  When the new government decided to reverse Labour’s plans for Exeter and Norwich to become unitary councils with fresh elections next year, they also triggered deferred elections for the twenty-six seats that should have been contested in May.  Added to this haul are five principal council by-elections and a pair of non-principal contests in the towns, for a grand total of thirty-three elections to report on this week.

The big story, of course, were the deferred elections in Exeter and Norwich, both of which went to the polls to fill a full thirteen council places.  For the incurable electoral anoraks amongst you, it should be acknowledged that one of Exeter’s thirteen elections was a by-election proper – a casual vacancy caused by Conservative resignation, but for the sake of narrative coherence, we’ll treat them all together.  A total of three seats changed hands in Exeter on Sept 9th, Labour picked up two from the Tories, who mitigated their losses by taking the Heavitree ward from the local Liberal Party.  Labour’s two net gains may yet be enough for them to take control of the council (currently a Lib Dem minority administration), the issue of control will be decided at a meeting on 21st.  Two seats changed hands in Norwich, Labour picking up one from the Tories, and the formerly Lib Dem Thorpe Hamlet ward swinging dramatically to the Greens.  The minority Labour administration in Norwich looks set to continue on the strength of their single net gain, with the Greens as second largest party keeping pace at only two seats behind.  

Of the remaining five principal council by-elections, the Tories held the Aspatria and Wharrels division of Cumbria County Council, Labour held their seat in Ward 16 of Edinburgh City Council, and Jo Clements and the local Lib Dem team successfully held the Newtown seat on Poole.  Labour received their comeuppance in the Ayresome ward of Middlesbrough, where the electorate took the seat back to Independent after the previous Independent councillor defected to Labour before their resignation sparked the contest.  

The final result of the day was a much-needed victory for the Liberal Democrats in Northern England, as Karen Henshaw and the local Focus Team took the Kilnhouse ward on Fylde Borough Council from the Conservatives.  Known not only for her politics, but also as a committed member of Fylde’s civic society, choir member and friend of local parks, Karen’s knowledge of, and residence in, the Kilnhouse ward proved a solid base on which to build a campaign.  The local Lib Dem team kept the focus local, always the best practice, and successfully used a petition against a local tip closure as a basis for targeted mailings at election time.  Getting out on the doorstep paid dividends in terms of visibility and new canvass data, with further target letters to first-time voters and new residents building on Karen’s profile.  A well financed Tory campaign failed to deliver, and the absence of the candidate from the doorsteps was a common observation.  With a 21% upswing in support, the Fylde campaign demonstrates the old ALDC adage that ‘where we work we win’.  Our congratulations to Karen and the entire team in Fylde.  

A brief glance around the towns; we had two Town Council by-elections reported to ALDC, both for Spennymoor T.C. in Co Durham.  Labour held one, and lost the other to Lib Dem Benjamin Ord.  Well done to Benjamin and his team, and the best of luck to our candidates and campaigners fighting by-elections across the country.

ALDC By-Elections Team

A warm welcome back to our by-election watchers after our short summer sojourn.  The smattering of by-elections that took place on the 12th and 19th yielded very little in the way of news, with no gains or losses to report on, so we shall recommence with events from the 26th.  August 26th celebrates the anniversaries of two seminal events.  Firstly, it was 221 years since the newly-created French National Assembly adopted the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen’, a foundational document of liberal democracy and of the concept that citizens can possess inalienable human rights.  It was also 90 years since the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution came into effect, giving women across the United States the right to vote for the very first time.  Looking to add to the great liberal heritage of the 26th were our by-election teams in Redcar, Sheffield, Cannock Chase, South Buckinghamshire, and Dacorum.  

The best result of the day reaches us from Dacorum Borough Council, in Hertfordshire, where Rosemarie Hollinghurst took the very rural Aldbury & Wigginton ward from the Conservatives.  The local campaign team introduced Rosemarie as part of their post-General ‘thank-you- leaflet and followed up with an impressive array of literature.  Leaflets included an Election Special Focus (in three editions), a Candidate Introduction, and pre-election Focus.  Target letters went out on a local parking issue, environmental issues and local tip closure, a letter for new voters, and a soft-Tory squeeze letter – a section of the electorate becoming increasingly fertile ground for Liberal Democrat campaigns across the country.  Extensive canvassing coverage, with help from three neighbouring constituencies, a very popular blue-letter, and two mailshots out to postal voters helped confirm the ALDC adage that ‘where we work we win’.  Congratulations to Rosemarie, Nick, and all of our campaigners in Dacorum.  

No great surprises in South Bucks, where the Tories held on against a greatly increased UKIP challenge.  Labour remain within their comfort zone, holding in both Redcar & Cleveland and the Woodhouse ward in Sheffield, and picking off the Conservatives in Cannock Chase.  Out in the towns, our congratulations to the local Lib Dem team in Burgess Hill for taking the Victoria ward from the Tories.

There were three principal council by-elections and six by-elections out in the towns.  Of the three main events, two Labour seats and one Tory ward were all successfully defended, with very little change in the vote tallies.  We ran candidates in two of the three, Bedford and Braintree, but to no avail.  The third by-election, in Conwy, saw Labour gain 11% in vote-share, mostly through the absence of a Plaid Cymru candidate who took 12% last time the seat was contested.  Three of the five Town Council seats up were Lib Dem defences, and a 100% retention rate is excellent news for our campaign teams.  We held on to our seat in the Dunmore ward on Abingdon Town Council, a glimmer of consolation after Evan Harris’ narrow defeat in May.  We also held two seats on Chippenham T.C. in the Monkton Park and Pewsham wards, where Duncan Hames and the local Lib Dem team fought and won the newly-created Chippenham seat that emerged from the latest boundary review.  Elsewhere, Labour held a seat on Llandudno, where Gareth Owen and the Lib Dem team doubled their previous vote tally, Labour gained one from the Conservatives in Shrewsbury, and finally the Tories picked off an Independent Town Councillor on Burton Latimer TC in Northamptonshire.

As it has been a bit of a quiet day, the ALDC By-Elections team wanted to take a moment to emphasise the importance of keeping our local voter intelligence fully up to date.  A lot has changed since the election and coalition agreement, and with the budget also polarising opinions on all sides, we should consider that our pre-election voter ID may be out of date.  ALDC is here to help our campaign teams keep their voter intelligence on the cutting edge, and our new Summer Survey is available online at the ALDC shop.  Tailored to generate a range of casework and Focus issues and to feed back valuable information on which local issues are driving voters’ political priorities, the ALDC Summer Survey can be printed and delivered to order.  

With seven principal by-elections next week, including Tulse Hill in the London Borough of Lambeth, and a brace out in the Towns, we hope there will be plenty of exciting developments to share a week from now.  Until then, the best of luck to all our teams out in the field.

Winning Candidate John Griffin at the Site of his Winning Opposition to a New Housing Development

Whilst June 3rd was a good day for by-election watchers this year, it suffers from a relative lack of whimsy in its anniversary celebrations.  One interesting tidbit however is that it was 54 years since British Railways renamed their ‘Third Class’ carriages to ‘Second Class’, arguably a greater victory for mass social mobility than has been achieved at any point since!  In by-election terms there were three principal council contests fought on Thursday, we were defending two in St Albans and pushing for a win in rural South Oxfordshire.

The Crowmarsh ward of South Oxfordshire District Council is safely ensconced in the Conservative stronghold of Henley, a famous stomping ground for big Tory beasts past and present – Baron Heseltine and Boris Johnson – and a constituency that celebrates an unbroken century of Conservative representation at Westminster in December this year.  Successful candidate John Griffin is a well-known figure in the area, having served as councillor for Crowmarsh before in the mid-late 1990s and currently serving as leader of the Crowmarsh Parish Council.  The Lib Dem campaign picked up a wealth of canvass data, pounding the streets with the assistance of the East Oxfordshire Lib Dems, and gained a positive response to their popular opposition to a proposed housing development in Crowmarsh itself.  In national terms, the coalition also went over well on the doorstep – with a large number of voters giving the Liberal Democrats plaudits for taking a brave step in the national interest.  

The remaining principal council results were a pair of successful defences in the St Albans area.  A notable Conservative stronghold throughout its electoral history, one point interest can be found in the work of John Bamford Slack M.P., the Liberal Member of Parliament for St Albans between 1904 and 1906.  On May 12 1905, Slack gave his place on the Private Members Bill ballot to a motion to introduce full voting rights for women.  Some years ahead of the times, the Womens Enfranchisement Bill was shamefully filibustered by anti-suffragist Members drawing out a prolonged discussion of the Lighting of Vehicles Bill that preceded it on the order paper.  Back in the modern day, at County Council level Lib Dem Martin Frearson was returned to represent the St Albans South division on Hertfordshire CC, keeping the Lib Dem opposition numbers at 16 County Councillors to the Tories’ 55.  The by-election for the Ashley ward on St Albans District Council was an exciting affair – we were defending a council majority of just two seats – but with 49.5% of the popular vote, the St Albans Lib Dem team and new Councillor Andy Grant safely retained their seat.  

A quick word on the best of the rest, we received reports of a handsome Liberal Democrat gain in the Gannel Ward of Newquay Town Council.  A straight head-to-head with the defending Conservatives saw our man David Sleeman elected to council with roughly 60% of the vote.  The next by-elections we currently have on the books are three on the 17th June.  Congratulations to all this week’s winning teams, and the very best of luck to all of our campaigners in the field.

ALDC By-Elections Team

If no news is good news, then this week’s by-election report is positively gospel.  The only by-election reported to ALDC was for two seats on a Town Council in Westbury, and it featured no Liberal Democrat candidates!  It took place on what would have been satirist Henry Fielding’s 303rd birthday.  One of Fielding’s best known quotes is that ‘the slander of some people is as great a recommendation as the praise of others’ – and having read April 22nd’s broadside against Nick Clegg in the right-wing press, one can only conclude that the same still holds…

As there is so little to report on, here is a whirlwind tour of our year so far:

January saw five by-elections across the country.  In addition to successfully defending our seats in Taunton Deane and Harrogate, we pinched the Great Bowden and Arden ward of Harborough District Council to open this year’s by-election account with a monthly net gain.  February was a busy month, with 27 principal council seats up for grabs.  The main news was Labour rallying, holding three of their five seats and gaining a further eight, for a net monthly gain of six.  The Tories gained and lost three apiece, essentially standing still over the month, and the Lib Dem tally was two successful defences out of seven – three gains and five losses left us on a net of minus two seats.  Our by-election nadir came in the Holmewood and Heath ward of North East Derbyshire, where we failed to field a candidate for a seat vacated by a Liberal Democrat Councillor, prompting some stern rejoinders from the By-Elections Team here at ALDC.  March saw six principal by-elections, with the Conservatives having to defend them all.  They succeeded in four cases, with the Mid-Suffolk Greens and Broadland’s Lib Dems dividing the remainder.  Up to now in April, we’ve had five principal by-elections.  The Tories have lost two of the three they’ve had to defend, one to the Devizes Guardian party in Devizes, and one to us in Dave Patrick’s historic victory in Fenland last week.  Of the rest, the Tories held us off by thirty votes on Cambridgeshire County Council, Labour held a seat in Lancaster (again, with Lib Dems in second), and finally Labour picked off Tory splinter group Tendring First for a seat on their eponymous District Council.  For those incurable political anoraks out there, the Westbury Town Council by-election returned two Independents, both gaining from the Conservatives, with forty and thirty percent of the vote respectively.

2010 up to now therefore, sees our electoral account in the black but only by one seat net.  Although we are yet to see the impact of the ‘Clegg effect’ and the General Election on the by-elections scheduled for May 6th and after, our efforts to this point have demonstrated that the Liberal Democrat approach of ward-level, grassroots activism, thorough canvassing contact, effective squeeze messaging, and heroic literature output, is still the key to authentic electoral success.  Where we’ve worked, we’ve won – and we will continue.

ALDC By-Elections Team