Political

Lib Dems win Hampstead Town by-election from Labour

Seven Liberal Democrat candidates for the ten principal local authority seats up for election this week, though two of the ten are for the City of London Corporation which the party does not contest so it’s really seven out of eight.

The oddest by-election was the one for Hampstead Town in Camden. In May it was a surprise Labour gain from the Conservatives, with the Labour candidate, having expected to be well out of the race, being rung at home and woken up to come to the count when it turned out he was going to win. He has since stood down from the council, triggering a by-election and a very unusual Conservative leaflet:

But that didn’t help the Conservatives as Linda Chung and the Liberal Democrat team scored a huge swing to take the seat:

Congratulations Linda!

Elsewhere:

Thank you to Mike Ward for standing for the Lib Dems – and getting an improved result for the party.

Richard Griffiths was the Liberal Democrat candidate – thank you.

Thank you to Hazel Thorpe for being the Lib Dem candidate.

Thrusie Maurseth-Cahill stood for the Lib Dems.

The Lib Dem candidate was Marian Morrison – thank yoiu.

Thanks to Raissa Roy for being the Liberal Democrat candidate.

For what all this means for the running total of council by-election results since the last May elections, see my council by-elections scorecard here.

These by-election results round-ups cover principal authority by-elections. See my post The danger in celebrating parish and town council wins for your own party for the reasons to avoid straying too often into covering town, parish or community council by-elections. But this week, this other by-election did come to notice:

Understanding the opinion polls

For understanding what is happening in politics, by-elections have the advantage of being real votes in real ballot boxes. But the opinion polls have the advantage of trying to be a representative sample of voters, not just those in the places that happen to have by-elections. To understand the polls properly – and what they do and don’t really tell us – see my book, Polling UnPacked: The History, Uses and Abuses of Political Opinion Polls.

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2 responses to “Lib Dems win Hampstead Town by-election from Labour”

  1. In the Local Elections round my patch Labour canvassers were strongly saying it was a fight about Lab v Con.The fact that we were in 2nd place was ignored.The implication being voters bought the misleading info and ignored us thus taking votes away from us and thus loosing the seat.If we are in 2nd place we MUST STRESS FROM THE START (in leaflets and on the doorstep) that we are the contenders.

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  2. Our spectacular Hampstead Town, Camden victory .. think I’m correct in saying the other two Councillors in this ward are conservative, even sweeter victory, we had a swing from labour AND conservative 🔸️ 🔶️

    Reply

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