The unofficial online home of the UK Independence Party
Peter Lucas
Out of Touch Tory Councillors
Jul 14th
Conservative run Barnet Council has taken the decision to increase the allowances of its Cabinet members by 38%. This rise places its leader on over £47,000 a year.
The rises have been condemned by a government minister, but have been supported as a “sensible” move by Conservative Councillor Brian Coleman.
Councillor Coleman also sits on the Greater London Assembly. Between April 2007 and March 2008, Mr. Coleman claimed for £8,231 worth of taxi rides, almost as much as the 24 other members of the GLA put together. The previous year, he had claimed £10,000.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the real face of Tory fiscal responsibility.
Election Watch
Jul 10th
A high profile by election Thursday, as former council opposition leader Richard Barnbrook attempted, and failed, to regain a seat for the BNP on Barking and Dagenham Council in the Goresbrook Ward. The by election had been held following a finding that the previous Labour councillor elected in May had been disqualified from standing by virtue of being a council employee.
The result of this was a polarised election, with the substantial majority of voters supporting either the defenders, Labour, or the BNP, who undoubtably have more support than we do in that area of the country.
Lab 881 46.6% (+3%)
BNP 642 34.0% (+6.7%)
LD 136 7.2% (-2.1%)
Con 108 5.7% (-7.4%)
Ind 63 3.3%
UKIP 50 2.6% (+2.6%)
Ind 11 0.6%
Turnout 25.29%
Labour Hold
Our other result from this week a similar level of support in Redbridge in the Chadwell Ward.
Lab 800 31.5% (+1.2%)
Con 580 22.9% (No Change)
LD 576 22.7% (-2.7%)
Green 413 16.3% (+2.3%)
BNP 115 4.5% (+4.5%)
UKIP 54 2.1% (-5.4%)
Turnout 25.5%
Labour Hold
Next week, we are standing candidates for East Dorset District Council (Corfe Mullen South Ward), Surrey County Council (Worplesdon Ward) and Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council (Bloxwich West Ward).
Of the three, Worplesdon in Surrey is the only one we contested last time it was up for election, scoring a promising 573 votes in last years elections.
Election Watch
Jun 16th
While plenty of by elections are taking place, its a slow month it seems for contests with a UKIP candidate in the race.
Having said that, last week saw John Youles stand again for Hellesdon Parish Council in Norfolk in the North West Ward. John scored 277 votes (32.2%) in a straight two way fight with a Liberal Democrat (582 votes).
Well done to John for standing, and I have no doubt his time will come! But right now there are dozens of council vacancies up and down the country and most of them are going uncontested by the party. A list can be found on the member’s forum under the “Election Campaigns” heading. Please have a look and if there are any in your area do take action. Every vacant council seat is a chance to fly the UKIP flag.
Election Watch: The General Election
May 8th
After results that in many ways can be seen as disappointing, the one major thing we have to hang on to is a substantial increase in our overall vote share – a rise of 50% from 605,973 votes in 2005 to 917,832 votes and from 2.2% to 3.1%. This also represents a larger rise than last time, an overall rise of 0.9%, compared to 0.7% in 2005.
So, while narrowly missing Paul Nuttal’s target of 1 million votes, which incidentally no party outside of the Lib/Lab/Con achieved, over 300,000 extra people voted UKIP this time around. While issues like the expenses scandal and the Lisbon Treaty may have had a part to play, and while the cost of our EU membership may be seen as a larger issue to many in light of the financial crisis, the party has nonetheless most definitely achieved more across the board success.
While we have failed to gain Buckingham, with Nigel Farage scoring only 17.4% (8,410 votes) and third place, behind former Tory MEP John Stevens, most seats have seen vote shares increase by notable amounts and strong results have been recorded in seats not contested last time around, including in Mansfield where David Hamilton scored 8.2%
More notable results include Newcastle-under-Lyme, where local councillor David Nixon scored 8.1%, a rise of 4.5% on 2005., Christchurch, where we scored 8.5% (+3.4%) and Devon North, where South West RO Steven Crowther took 3rd place, beating Labour and scoring 7.2% (+2.0%). Boston and Skegness have achieved a score of 9.5% with over 4,000 votes, though this was no increase on 2005. Steve Povey in Staffordshire Moorlands, also a local councillor, scored 8.2% (+1.4%), while former party elections coordinator Stephen Allison (who unfortunately narrowly lost his seat on the council in these elections) has doubled his vote share in Hartlepool at 7% of the vote (+3.5%).
Many other seats have seen increases including Bootle, being contested by party chairman Paul Nuttal with a score of 6.1% (+2.8%), Ludlow where former MP Christopher Gill was the candidate, up 2.7% to 4.4% and Suffolk South, where David Campbell Bannerman, head of policy, achieved a 7.1% vote share (+2.%).
The really good news is the vast majority of seats tell a similar story: a modest, but notable, increase in vote share. Seats we got 2% in last time we are scoring 3-4%, seats where we got 3% we are getting 5% and seats we got 5% we are getting 7-8%.
Larger breakthroughs could have been hoped for, but progress is being seen in virtually every seat, and that is what it will take for the party to have a real impact. We are one step closer to the day we will take seats. We have got ourselves to the point where, with our much increased vote share, it will be much harder to dismiss us as a fringe party of cranks and gadflies. In that spirit then, in the words of Winston Churchill, this is not the end of the end, nor even the beginning of the end, but maybe, just maybe, it is the end of the beginning.
Onwards and upwards my friends!
Election Watch
Apr 11th
One result to report from the first of April from the John O’Gaunt Ward of Lancaster City Council
Lab 603 35.2% (-4.9%)
Lib Dem 389 22.7% (+22.7%)
Green 339 19.8% (-17.5%)
Con 301 17.6% (-5.1%)
UKIP 83 4.8% (+4.8%)
On April 8th, there were no by elections with UKIP candidates.
This coming week, vacancies in the same place on three councils are being contested by UKIP, with Paul Clapp standing for the Kirkgate Ward of Fenland District Council and the Wisbech North Ward of Cambridgeshire County Council and Edward Lay standing for the Kirkgate Ward of Wisbech Town Council.
The County Council seat in particular could yield an interesting result, with us having taken second place here in last year’s elections and coming within 200 votes of taking the seat.
2009 result
Con 729
UKIP 537
Lab 271
Lib Dem 212
So good luck to everyone up there and let’s hope for some good news this week!
Election Watch
Mar 26th
A shocking result last night that will leave people of all parties astounded as the Green extremists take a seat on Mid Sussex District Council. While disappointing to see another of these radical environmentalists in public office, this result does nonetheless show the potential of a smaller party to go from a modest result to taking a seat, and we can all take from that hope for the upcoming contests on May the 6th. Our actual result this time though suffered from a squeeze that sort the ward become a polarised two way contest between the victorious Greens and the CONservatives who had previously held the seat. This by election also brought the surprise of a turnout of over 40%, very unusual for local elections where turnout is typically in the 30s or even 20s.
Mid Suffolk District Council, Haughley and Wetherden Ward
Green 444 61.0% (+45.4%)
Con 176 24.2% (-20.9%)
LD 51 7.0% (-32.4%)
Lab 32 4.4% (+4.4%)
UKIP 25 3.4% +3.4)
Turnout 41.57%
Green take from Conservative
Congratulations due to John Youles from Norfolk for his strong result in a parish council contest last night. The election was a straight two way fight with the Cons and an impressive score that gives strong hope for us taking the seat in the future.
Hellesdon Parish Council, North West ward
Conservative 581 (61.7%)
UKIP (John Youles) 381 (38.3%)
Conservative Hold
And a very impressive result last week in Gravesham as our candidate goes from no where to second place, beating Labour and the Lib Dems.
Gravesham Borough Council, Meopham South and Vigo Ward
Con 515 59.5% (-4.4%)
UKIP 122 14.1% (+14.1%)
LD Ann O’Brien 114 13.2% (+13.2%)
Lab 114 13.2% (-2.5%)
Election Watch
Mar 8th
Apologies for the lack of an edition for a couple of weeks, both election matters and other matters had been catching up on me. So here is a run down of our results since last time.
February 18th
Evesham Town Council, Evesham South Ward
Con 432 66.6%
UKIP John White 217 33.4%
Turnout 16.16%
Wychavon District Council, Evesham South Ward
Con 358 52.3% (+1.2%)
Lib Dem 176 25.7% (+2.1%)
UKIP John White 150 21.9% (-3.3%)
Turnout 16.26%
February 25th
Sandhurst Town Council, Owlsmoor Ward
Con 453 48.2%
LD 201 21.4%
Lab 124 13.2%
UKIP 112 11.9%
Green 50 5.3%
Turnout 24%
Mansfield District Council, Sherwood Ward
Lab 406 46.4% (+8.3%)
Mansfield Independent Forum 171 19.5 (-42.4%)
Con 156 17.8 (+17.8%)
UKIP 93 10.6 (+10.6%)
LD 49 5.6 (+5.6%)
Turnout 24.84%
Mansfield District Council, Portland Ward
Lab 407 45.8% (+2.2%)
Mansfield Independent Forum 263 29.6% (-26.9%)
Con 116 13.0% (+13.0%)
LD 66 7.4% (+7.4%)
UKIP 37 4.2% (+4.2%)
Turnout 24.15%
Nottinghamshire County Council, Mansfield Ward
Lab 1342 33.5% (+13.4%)
Mansfield Independent Forum 1108 27.6% (-12.7%)
Con 774 19.3% (-9.2%)
UKIP 489 12.2% (+12.2%)
LD 295 7.4% (-3.8%)
Turnout 20.94%
Surprisingly high scores for Labour in Mansfield with them taking all three seats from the Mansfield Independent Forum, and a good solid result for us in the county council seat.
March 4th
Chatteris Town Council, The Mills Ward (2 seats)
Con 340 (28.8%)
LD Diane Baldry 324 (27.5%)
Con 255 (21.6%)
UKIP 151 (12.8%)
Lab 109 (9.2%)
Turnout 31.7%
Fenland District Council, The Mills Ward
Con 301 45.9% (-11.2%)
LD 264 40.2% (-2.7%)
UKIP 58 8.8% (+8.8%)
Lab 33 5.0% (+5.0%)
Turnout 31.8%
This week there are two contests, but we are not contesting either of them.
Europe to become more taxing than ever?
Feb 28th
So proposals are flying around this week that the EU should introduce a “family of taxes at a European level”.
This at a time when we already have a system of taxation that is far too punishing on the British people. We have income tax, corporation tax, national insurance (employers and employees sides), VAT, various excise duties (most particularly fuel duty), inheritance (death) tax, stamp duty, council tax, road tax, and a whole host of other methods of taking people’s money away to fund endless bureaucracy and politician’s gravy trains.
As at November 2007, the average family pays a total of £32,779 in tax. And on top of that we are now faced with the prospect of European “Federal” Taxes on top of all that! A “whole family of them”! European Income Tax? European Road Tax? Its sheer lunacy! This is just another development that makes the whole European project ever scarier than it already was for the British people, but we shouldn’t be surprised really: the Lisbon Treaty was designed to turn the EU into a fully fledged country, and a country needs the power to raise its own revenue.
Election Watch
Feb 18th
Apologies for the lack of an edition of Election Watch last week: this edition will therefore be covering two weeks worth of contests.
But before we get started on that, I just want to say a big warm welcome to the party to Terry Gandy, an independent member of Billericay Town Council who became UKIP’s second member on the Council after signing up yesterday. He joins Councillor Susan McCaffery, who was elected in a by election last September.
Starting then firstly with by elections that took place on February 4th, we had a strong result in Newcastle-under-Lyme’s Newchapel Ward, with our vote share increasing 10% on 2008 and our position improving from fourth to second. I did think we might have taken this seat, but its still a big improvement on last time round and with scheduled elections taking place this year for this Council, where we currently hold 5 seats, our chances are excellent for substantially increasing our representation there in May.
Con 208 33.5% (-10.6%)
UKIP Carol Lovatt 148 23.8% (+10.4%)
Lab 138 22.2% (-1.1%)
LD Adrian Rhodes 127 20.5% (+1.4%)
Majority 60
Also on the 4th, Jill Seymore stood against two independents in the Rural Ward of Shifnal Town Council. While the number of votes was low, it is worth bearing in mind that this is a small ward with an electorate of only 757, of which only 118 voted (a turnout of 15.58%). The result is therefore, proportionately speaking, a fair percentage of votes cast.
Jane Theresa Blackstock Independent 63 (53.39%)
John Michael Horne Independent 37 (31.35%)
Gillian Elizabeth Seymour UK Independence Party 18 (15.25%)
Earlier that week, on Tuesday the 2nd, we contested the Whyteleafe Ward on Tandridge District Council, with a solid result, especially for a ward we had not contested last time it was up for election in 2008. The Lib Dems held the seat, and the Conservatives appear to have lost around a quarter of their votes, to our benefit.
LD 444 57.0% (+3.2%)
Con 236 30.3% (-11.3%)
UKIP 99 12.7% (+12.7%)
Majority 208
Turnout 28.9%
Moving on then to last week, there was a lot of hype about the two by elections being held in the Buckingham area, where Nigel Farage is going for election as an MP. While in that regard the results may not be what we’d hoped for, one of them in particular perhaps lower than expectations, it does need to be remembered that what will get Nigel elected is the fact that Speaker of the House John Bercow, a figure increasingly disliked by Conservatives, will be standing as Speaker this year, not as a Con, while these council by elections did not have that unique attribute. That is not of course to say that we can not win other seats, in other places there are unique factors that could encourage the masses to support us, and who knows after all what could happen between now and the general election.
But anyway, enough on the general for now and back to last week’s by elections. Both were for Aylesbury Vale District Council. The first, and the one that has caused some level of disappointment, was in the Aylesbury Central Ward. In this ward, we scored a little over 9% of the vote, and suffered a small decrease in vote share compared to 2007. In contrast, our result in Luffield Abbey was far stronger, especially considering that we did not contest ward last time around. We came second, with a vote share of over 20%. While this is another seat where there was a real possibility of a UKIP victory, we should hold on to the fact that the score we got was still a strong one and does still indicate that people in the area are listening to what we have to say and that our ideas are striking home with a significant number of them! It is also notable that turnout was significantly higher in the Luffield Abbey Ward with over one in three people voting, a very high figure for a local by election, so it seems the messages or methods used in that ward were more successful in getting people to go out and vote for us.
Aylesbury Central Ward
LD 354 50.6% (-1.9%)
Con 213 30.5% (-5.9%)
Lab 67 9.6% (+9.6%)
UKIP 65 9.3% (-1.9%)
Majority 141
Turnout 26.9%
Luffield Abbey Ward
Con 343 49.7% (-30.7%)
UKIP 151 21.9% (+21.9%)
LD 133 19.3% (+19.3%)
Ind 63 9.1% (+9.1%)
Majority 192
Turnout 33.4%
One bad piece of news I have to report is the loss of a seat on Calne Town Council in Wiltshire. Dr. Julia Reid did her best to hold the seat for UKIP, but unfortunately it was taken by the Cons. Still, at least we have a new town council seat this week to make up the loss!
Con 224 (47.3%)
LD 192 (40.5%)
UKIP Julia Reid 58 (12.2%)
Majority 32
Turnout 26.6%
Going up from Wiltshire now to Telford and the Wrekin, who were holding three by elections on the same day, two for the borough council and one for a town council. We contested two, the town council and one borough council contest.
In Telford and the Wrekin BC’s The Nedge Ward, a seat which out of interest the Cons took from Labour, our vote share held up well in spite on the addition this time of a candidate from the BNP, which may well have taken the votes of some people concerned about the EU and uncontrolled immigration which might have otherwise gone to increasing our own score. Wellington Town Council’s College Ward saw Gillian Seymour make her second run for council in two weeks! The results in full:
The Nedge Ward, Telford and the Wrekin BC
Con 760 42.5% (+18.6%)
Lab 688 38.5% (+15.4%)
UKIP Raymond Knight 237 13.3% (-0.6%)
BNP 103 5.8% (+5.8%)
Majority 72
Turnout 27.2%
College Ward, Wellington TC
Patrick McCarthy Independent 301 (34.01%)
Frank Burns Labour 238 (26.89%)
Sylvia Hall Conservative 234 (26.44%)
Gillian Elizabeth Seymour UKIP 67 (7.57%)
One last result for last week was in the Hucknall Central Ward of Ashfield District Council. In a seat that Labour took from the Conservatives, UKIP, standing for the first time, achieved a score of 9%, coming in fourth out of five candidates.
Lab 675 38.4% (+17.9%)
Con 437 24.9% (-5.1%)
LD 357 20.3% (+6.8%)
UKIP Ronald Nixon 158 9.0% (+9.0%)
BNP 131 7.5% (+7.5%)
Majority 238
Turnout 32.29%
Coming up later today (as I write this its just gone Midnight), many by elections but we are contesting only two. John White is standing both Wychavon Parish Council’s Evesham Town South Ward and Wychavon District Council’s Evesham South Ward. In the district council contest, he faces the Cons and the Lib Dems, while in the parish contest only David Cameron’s limp band of promise breakers stand against him.
The results of those contests and the start of articles on the general election coming soon.
But before I say goo night after a very long edition of Election Watch, one piece of news that I’m sure will put a smile on many people’s faces, and that is that in Charnwood this week, the Lib Dems will not be appearing on the ballot after screwing up their nomination forms. It seems that one of the people who signed their forms is not actually a resident of the ward! Ouch.
That’s it for now, but I’ll be back soon with more election news. For now, good night and good luck to John White in tomorrow’s contests.
Election Watch
Feb 1st
One election contested by UKIP last week, the Lyngford Ward of Taunton Deane Borough Council. Our candidate Charlene Sherriff, contesting a new ward for the party, scored 59 votes, or 6.6% of votes cast.
Full result
LD 390 43.7% (-0.7%)
Con 253 28.4% ( +0.4%)
Lab 190 21.3% (-6.3)
UKIP 59 6.6% (+6.6)
Lib Dem Hold
One interesting thing to note about this by election is, as you can see from the numbers above, there is little movement in either the Conservative or Liberal Democrat vote, but the Labour vote sharply declines, by 6.3% to be exact, almost identical to the 6.6% that we scored. In this case, the figures would seem to indicate that it is Labour voters that are being converted to UKIP!
Coming up this week, something of a rarity in the form of a Tuesday contest, in the Whyteleafe Ward of Tandridge District Council. Our candidate, Jefferey Bolter, is standing against the Conservatives and Lib Dems only, with no Labour candidate standing. We did not contest the ward the last time it was fought.
On Thursday, the long awaited contest in Newcastle under Lyme’s Newchapel Ward. This was necessitated by the death of a long serving Conservative councillor late last year and represents our chance to bring our total number of seats on this Staffordshire borough council to 6. With the number of councillors we already have here, us also holding the local county council seat, and the fact that our campaign swung into gear very promptly, I am going to be bold and call this as a UKIP gain! At any rate, is is most certainly our best chance at a gain in many months. Carol Lovatt is up against all three wings of the One Party with Three Names.
2008 Result
Con 416 (44.11%)
Lab 220 (23.33%)
LD 180 (19.09%)
UKIP 127 (13.47%)
Lastly, a contest in Shifnal in Shropshire, in the Rural Ward. Jill Seymore is facing two independents for a seat on the town council. A double by election in Shifnal TC’s Manor Ward has gone uncontested by UKIP.
I’ll be back at the end of the week, hopefully with some good news to report. Good luck to all our candidates!
Election/Defection Watch
Jan 23rd
Good morning everyone! After our recent successes in attracting councillors of other affiliations to join our party, I am delighted to welcome Councillor Eddie Poole to UKIP. Councillor Poole was elected as a Conservative and represents the Manor Park Ward of Rushmoor Borough Council in Hampshire and is the third councillor to defect to UKIP this year already (and its still January)!
Also in the news this week, Alastair Muir scored almost 20% for us in a by election in Wiltshire. Standing in Calne Town Council’s Lickhill Ward, Muir took 19.3% of the vote in a straight two way fight against the Liberal Democrats.
Full Score
Lib Dem 331 80.7%
UKIP 79 19.3%
Lib Dem take from Conservative
Election/Defection Watch
Jan 13th
No elections this week, but several new councillors for UKIP nonetheless.
Firstly, David Rogerson up in Corby in Northamptonshire has been co-opted on to Stanion Parish council, representing our first new council seat of 2010! Congratulations to him and best of luck to him in his work on the council.
Second, as has widely been reported, Huntingdonshire District Councillor Peter Reeve, previously the sole UKIP member of that council, will be getting some company as ward colleague Conservative Councillor Andy Monk crosses the floor. Monk had only been elected in a by election last April, ironically narrowly beating Peter Reeve, who went on to win another seat in the same ward for us with his legendary double by election victory in July.
Upon his defection, Councillor Monk remarked “I really do feel that the current leadership of the Conservative Party no longer represents real conservative values and that local Conservative leaders do not allow their councillors the freedom to properly represent the local community. In contrast UKIP strongly champions the local community and is the real voice of local people.”
Establishing a presence for our party in the council chambers of Britain is so important, as it gives us the opportunity to start to take real action for the people of Britain, to hold the Lib/Lab/Con administrations to account, and to show a different way of doing things, concerned with helping the local people, and not with partisan politics. In that spirit, Mr. Monk’s realisations and his change of heart are of course very welcome.
Thirdly, only today I have learned that independent Sutton Councillor David Theobald has joined UKIP. With our incumbent there David Pickles, that is another council we now have 2 members of. Councillor Theobald remarked “I have enjoyed many debates and conversations with Cllr Pickles over the past few years and have found that, despite opposing views on some issues we can always find common ground and a viable road forward”.
So that’s three new councillors in our fair party this week already and its only Wednesday! For those of us keeping count, we are now up 22 council seats compared to immediately before last year’s European elections. This level of UKIP success in the local government arena is unprecedented. Let’s hope that it continues.
By elections will be held in the coming weeks in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Gravesham, Telford and the Wrekin and Aylesbury. If you live near one of these places and can help, please contact the local branch.
Election Watch
Jan 9th
Happy new year readers!
Its been a quiet few weeks, with Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve both falling on Thursdays, and thus no by elections occurring those weeks.
This Thursday however, the 7th, came with mass by elections for Somerton Town council in Somerset. These followed the resignation of twelve members last Autumn over a blog that claimed the councillors were “ignoring democracy”.
I wanted to share with everyone the list of candidates who stood in these elections, as I feel this is important.
Paul Anthony AUSTIN
Ashley Victor BANKS
Steven BOTTOMLEY
Shane BROOM
Margaret Ruth CHAMBERS
Pauline CLARKE
Jane COOK
Barrie Thomas DAVIES
Michael George FRASER-HOPEWELL
Alison Margaret HOGHTON
Judith HURLEY
Tony JOTCHAM
Nancy Georgina LANGMAID
Vic MEDLEY
Sam MILDON
Brian Walter RAYBOULD
Peter John SPEARMAN
Sue STANDEN
Phil THOMAS
John WATTS
Now what is wrong with that list, I ask? Not a single name has next to it the words “U.K. Independence Party”! This was an opportunity we could have used to campaign on our policies of enhanced local democracy, but we didn’t take it. And particularly, with a general election just months away, it is so important that voters are reminded at every opportunity of our existence and of our policies.
Please, if you have a council by election coming up in your area, stand. It really does count for something , especially this year.
Election Watch
Dec 16th
We start off our round-off of last week’s elections with a strong result from Goole Town Council in East Yorkshire. The seat, in the town’s North Ward, was held by Labour, but our candidate James Norie took over 20% of the vote with a score of 172 votes.
Full result
Labour 358 42%
Lib Dem 322 37.8%
UKIP 172 20.2%
A strong result for us too in Peterborough, where Frances Fox stood in the borough’s West Ward. From not having previously stood in the ward, she (I have been corrected on that small error I made last week for which I apologise) scored 177 votes, or 8.3%, ahead of both the English Democrats and the Greens and only just behind the Lib Dems. Certainly a result we can build on. The seat was a hold for the Cons.
Full result
Conservative 1,252 58.4% (+4.1%)
Labour 341 15.9% (+0.9%)
Lib Dem 224 10.4% (+7.4%)
UKIP 177 8.3%
Eng Dem 93 4.3%
Green 58 2.7% (-0.5%)
Lastly, Tony Baker was standing for us in two contests, in the Areley Kings Ward of Wyre Forest District Council and the Areley Kings West Ward of Stourpoint Town Council. In the District Council contest he scored 63 votes or 4.4% and in the Town Council contest 34 votes or 4.8%.
Full results
District Council
Labour 544 38.3% (+5.5%)
Health Concern 421 29.6% (-2.4%)
Conservative 394 27.7% (-7.5%)
UKIP 63 4.4%
Town Council
Health Concern 294 41.9%
Conservative 238 33.9%
Labour 136 19.4%
UKIP 34 4.8%
There is only one contest this Thursday with a UKIP candidate: Joseph Fox is one of 5 candidates vying for a seat on Reigate and Banstead Borough Council in the Earlswood and Whitebushes Ward. He is up against the big three plus the BNP.
The results of the last four elections there were
2008 Con 1022 LD 478 Lab 328 UKIP 188
2007 Con 848 LD 593 Lab 317 UKIP 169 Grn 116
2007 by election CON 421 LD 380 LAB 152 UKIP 113 GRN 54
2003 LD 571 LAB 515 CON 377 UKIP 149
Election Watch
Dec 7th
Welcome back to Election Watch! Its been a quiet couple of weeks – out of 15 council by elections that took place on the 19th and 26th of November, UKIP didn’t contest a single one. But last week, there was at last a contest in which we had a candidate!
Martin Bulmer stood for us in the Ormesby ward of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council. Another ward we had not previously contested, Martin managed to secure third place, beating the CONservatives and taking 7% of the vote.
Full result
Ann Wilson (Liberal Democrat) 1,084 73.5% (+12.4%)
Steve Goldswain (Labour) 210 14.2% (-5.1%)
Martin Bulmer (UK Independence Party) 103 7.0%
Colin Jones (Conservative) 77 5.2% (-14.4%)
Turnout 29.55% Lib Dem Hold
This week, we are contesting 2 principal authority by elections out of a possible 10. That’s 8 opportunities to build up local awareness ahead of next year’s general election poll missed!
Frances Fox is flying the UKIP flag in Peterborough Council’s West Ward. This is another ward we have not previously contested. He is up against a large field of candidates; on top of the big three, the Greens and the English Democrats are also standing. It does seem there number of candidates is up of late (its a pity I can’t say the same about us really isn’t it?). The seat is currently held by the Conservatives.
2008 result Con 1683 Ind 758 Lab 466 Green 99 LibDem 93
Our other candidate in this week’s principal authority contests is Tony Baker, standing in Wyre Forest’s Areley Kings Ward, where we have not previously stood a candidate. Also standing are the Cons, Labour and Independent Kidderminster Health Concern, who hold the seat in Parliament. The results of the last election indicate it is a three way marginal between those three groups.
2008 result Con 666 Lab 621 IKHC 552 Liberal 54
Tony Baker is also standing in a simultaneous town council by election, caused by the death of Conservative Mike Partridge who occupied both seats. This is for the Areley Kings West Ward of Stourport-on-Severn Town Council. Again, Tony’s opponents are the Cons, Labour and Health Concern. Good luck to him with both his contests.
2007 result Con 506/463/352 Health Concern 465/455 Labour 263
Lastly, James Norie is fighting a three way race in the North Ward of Goole Town Council, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, against Labour and the Lib Dems following the resignation of the incumbent Labour councillor.
Election Watch
Nov 12th
Just one by election that we are contesting tomorrow, for the New Romney Ward of Shepway District Council. The other candidates are from the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. The result last time, when UKIP didn’t stand, was LibDem 621/620 Con 602/596 so the seat is a marginal. Added to that, the incumbent was elected as a Lib Dem and later defected to the Conservatives so this will be an interesting one to watch.
There is also a by election in Totnes in Devon for the South Hams District Council. It is interesting that we are not contesting this seat since we did the last two times it was up with strong results:
2007 result Ind 820 LibDem 476/186 UKIP 236 Con 206 Lab 170
2003 result Ind 768 LibDem 376/157 UKIP 210 Con 197 Lab 148 Ind 148 Ind 129
A pity!
Also of course tomorrow is the Glasgow North East Parliamentary By Election and even though we are not contesting it (missed opportunity, blame the good for nothing NEC), I will nonetheless give a run down of the situation there given its importance.
This was of course the seat of Michael Martin, Speaker at the time of the expenses crisis and the MP who led the charge to try to block the release of the details of MPs claims.
The parties contesting it, beyond the one party with three names and the Scottish fake Nationalists are the BNP, plus a cacophony of left wingers, the most notable of which is former MSP and current perjury defendant Tommy Sheridan for Solidarity. Also standing are the Scottish Socialist Party, of which Sheridan used to be leader, Socialist Labour, who did surprisingly well in the constituency in 2005 and the Greens.
A notable independent contesting the seat is John Smeaton, the baggage handler hero from the Glasgow Airport bombings, standing on a platform that highlights the abuses of expenses. He is standing with the backing of, though not for, Jury Team. Also on the ballot are former Big Brother contestant Mikey Hughes, serial by election candidate Mev Brown and Colin Campbell for a group called “The Individuals Labour and Tory”.
The result at the general election was
Speaker 53.3%
SNP 17.7%
Socialist Labour 14.2%
Scottish Socialist 4.9%
Scottish Unionist 4.5%
BNP 3.2%
Joe Chambers (Ind) 2.2%
