The UK's most up-to-date social housing and public sector news website
New Year by-election boost for Lib Dems
There was relief for beleaguered Labour and a shock for Tories in this week's only two council by-elections.
It held on at Wickersley, Rotherham Borough, South Yorkshire, in a ward where Conservatives had won another seat in May's main polls.
The BNP scored 19.2% in third place.
Tories saw their majority slashed to just 10 votes by Liberal Democrats at Pimhill, Shrewsbury and Atcham, where they had previously taken more than 80%.
The new borough councilor will serve only until next April when the council is merged into a new Shropshire unitary authority.
There were only two comparable contests this month; not enough for a nationwide projection calculation. But including two other results from July 31 gives a projected Tory lead over Labour of
14.3%.
Allowing for observed differences in relative party support when past parliamentary and council elections have been on the same day, this suggests a net swing back of just under 2% to Labour since
its May disasters.
RESULTS:
Rotherham Borough - Wickersley: Lab 871, C 824, BNP 538, Ukip 373, Lib Dem 191. (May 2008 - C 1355, Lab 1255, Ukip 879.). Lab hold. Swing 2.2% C to Lab.
Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough - Pimhill: C 341, Lib Dem 331, BNP 59, Ind 16. (May 2007 - C 564, Lab 136). C hold.
COMMENTS
No comments yet...
Be the first and post your views below.
Please Login to comment
To comment you must be logged in. You can either Login or Register