Trio of Lib Dem council by-election wins over Conservatives

Six principal authority council by-elections this week, and all with a Lib Dem candidate. That’s up an impressive three from the last time these wards were up.

First off, what could have been a tricky Lib Dem defence in the West Country, as Andrew Teale explains:

The Liberal Democrats are defending this council by-election after Jamie Frost didn’t turn up to any council meetings within six months, an action which doesn’t get you the coveted Pointless trophy: instead it gets you disqualified. It appears that Frost was also kicked out of the party for the same reason at some point before he was kicked out of the council.

But the result was a Lib Dem win with a 4% swing from the Conservatives to LIb Dems:

Congratulations to new councillor Adam Stirling and the team for this win, which is in the Tiverton and Minehead constituency.

Next, a pair of Lib Dem defences in Oxfordshire following the retirement of former group leader Richard Webber:

The county ward is in two Parliamentary constituencies: Didcot & Wantage and Oxford West & Abingdon. The district ward is in the former.

The new Liberal Democrat councillor is Peter Stevens; congratulations.

Paul Young was the Lib Dem candidate after four previous no shows for the party in this ward. Thank you for putting that right.

Caroline Spence stood for the Liberal Democrats after two no shows in this ward for the party. Thank you for getting us back on the ballot papers.

Thorsten Altenkirch stood for the Lib Dems, again getting the party back on ballot papers – and again, thank you.

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 as it’s only those for which comprehensive results are available.

What do the polls say?

The results above may tell us what voters are deciding on ballot papers, but not everywhere voted. So what’s the overall picture in the polls? Find out each week with my newsletter, The Week in Polls.

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