By elections since GE	Defended	Held	Gain	Lost	Now
CON	37	21	5	16	26
LAB	25	22	12	3	35
LD	17	12	10	5	22
OTH	13	8	1	5	9

Elections held on September 16 2010

Name of ward: Park
Local Authority: Knowsley
Electoral Region: North West England
Labour 650 votes (86.0% +6.1% on May 2010)
Liberal Democrats 70 votes (9.3% -10.8% on May 2010)
Conservatives 36 votes (4.8% did not contest in May 2010)
Labour HOLD with a majority of 580 votes (76.7%) on a swing from Liberal Democrat to Labour of 8.5%

Although slightly scewed due to the lack of a Conservative candidate in the local elections in May, yet another clear case of the Liberal Democrats losing support to Labour in the North of England. Whether this is a reaction from voters to the Coalition or as I mentioned last week former Labour voters (who voted Lib Dem between 2006 and 2009) coming back to Labour, it is not easy to tell without listening to the issues on the ground, but with Knowsley such a Labour stronghold I would suggest the latter.

Name of ward: Earl’s Court
Local Authority: Kensington and Chelsea
Electoral Region: Greater London
Liberal Democrats 703 votes (44.8% +24.2% on May 2010)
Conservatives 594 votes (37.8% -7.1% on May 2010)
Labour 151 votes (9.6% -9.2% on May 2010)
Independents 78 votes (5.0% -0.8% on May 2010)
Green Party 26 votes (1.7% -8.3% on May 2010)
United Kingdom Independence Party 18 votes (1.1% did not contest in May
2010)
Liberal Democrat GAIN from Conservative with a majority of 109 votes (7.0%) on a swing from Conservative to Liberal Democrat of 15.7%

Now, all those Lib Dems who read this blog, just calm down a second. Whilst it is true that this is a stunning result in the heart of London (represented at Westminster by no less a parliamentary personnage than Malcolm Rifkind), this does not mean that Kensington and Chelsea will elect a Liberal Democrat MP at the next election. If you look at the changes since May’s local elections and add them together (Con -7%, Lab -9%, Green -8%) you come to the same increase as the Liberal Democrats (+24%), therefore it’s pretty obvious that there must have been a local issue at work in Earl’s Court. A good result for the Lib Dems, yes, but as Lib Dems should know “a good by-election, does not a general election make!”

Name of ward: Worksop West
Local Authority: Nottinghamshire
Electoral Region: East Midlands
Labour 1,457 votes (61.5% +28.6% on June 2009)
Conservatives 755 votes (31.9% -18.9% on June 2009)
Liberal Democrats 88 votes (3.7% -12.5% on June 2009)
Independents 69 votes (2.9% did not contest in June 2009)
Labour GAIN from Conservative with a majority of 702 votes (29.6%) on a swing from Conservative to Labour of 23.8%

Name of ward: Worksop South
Local Authority: Bassetlaw
Electoral Region: East Midlands
Labour 815 votes (52.0% +5.2% on June 2009)
Conservatives 669 votes (42.7% -10.6% on June 2009)
Liberal Democrats 84 votes (5.4% did not contest in June 2009)
Labour GAIN from Conservative with a majority of 146 votes (9.3%) on a swing from Conservative to Labour of 7.9%

For those of us who are of a certain age, the town of Worksop is famous for one thing. Being the home of people such as Margaret the Thatcher, Snooker and everyone’s favourite fashionable fop Robin of Sherwood (as protrayed in “Maid Marian and Her Merry Men”) so whether we can say that the townspeople of Worksop are rising up against an oppresive regime by turfing out the Conservative party would be stretching the imagination a bit, but clearly it goes to show that the local election landslide that the Conservatives enjoyed in the 2009 county elections may not be that long lived and it would not surprise me in the slightest if in next year’s local elections we hear headlines such as “Labour GAIN Lincoln” and “Labour GAIN Chesterfield” and even “Conservatives LOSE Daventry to No Overall Control”