Friday, March 24, 2006
Labour's Spectacular Council Poll Failure
Yesterday there was a local council by-election in the knife-edge marginal Ewhurst ward at Surrey's Waverley Borough Council. An independent candidate shocked all three major parties by pulling off a shock win to take the seat by 12 votes from the Conservatives. But what was equally shocking was that Labour scored just 6 votes (out of nearly 1,000 cast!). This means that the four of the people who nominated the Labour candidate didn't even vote for him! After the last few days I suppose this shouldn't come as much of a surprise!
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7 comments:
He clearly didn't make them a good enough offer!
That's mighty good spin you're putting on a Tory election defeat in deepest Surrey!
The Keighley West by-election is even more interesting: Labour 47% (up from about 34% in 2004), Tory 16% (down from about 28%), LibDem 5% (down from about 12%).....
Richard, given the reason for the by-election (the sitting Conservative councillor stood down following his conviction for fraud) that is really funny! The Labour vote switched to the Independent to beat the Tories... which is hardly a vote of confidence in Comical Cami's Tories.
The Labour vote in Surrey is very soft. I suspect that it directed to be so from "on high" to aid the Liberal Democrats unermine the Conservatives in their own backyard. Given the background of the by-election, it is not surprising that the Conservative candidate did not "pull it off". However,I am very surprised that the Lib Dems' attempts to make capital of the situation and win, failed.
Well I was the Labour candidate in 2001 in SW Surrey and it is a very challenging area for Labour! It is a bit like being a Tory in the Rhonnda, Liverpool or Glasgow
hughes views - Keighley West has special circumstances, being a BNP held seat, although the figures I've got are slightly different (I think the last contest was for three seats with some parties fielding less than full slates, confusing things) - Bradford MBC, Keighley West
Lab 1819 (47.0;+22.2), BNP 1216 (31.4;+2.3), Con 627 (16.2;-3.8),
LD 208 (5.4;-4.8)
[Ind 0 (0.0;-15.8)]
Majority 603. Turnout 35.14. Lab gain BNP. Last fought 2004
Everyone - Even in 1997 Labour in South West Surrey polled less than 10% of the vote. Elsewhere in Surrey Labour polled 12 votes in an Epsom & Ewell by-election back in October (down 4.2% to 1.4%) - which we thought was a new low then!
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