It’s fair to say 2018 has been a great year for the Lib Dems with some resounding successes in by-elections nationally.
We made 26 fantastic gains, with 19 of these coming from the Conservatives! A full list of our 26 excellent gains is below:
- Arun DC, Marine – LD Matt Stanley gain from Conservative.
- Aylesbury Vale DC, Quainton – LD Scott Raven gain from Conservative.
- Bath & North East Somerset UA, Kingsmead – LD Sue Craig gain from Conservative.
- Broadland DC, Aylesham – LD Sue Catchpole gain from Conservative
- Chesterfield BC, Moor – LD Tony Rogers gain from Labour.
- Chichester DC, Rogate – LD Kate O’Kelly gain from Conservative.
- Dacorum BC, Northchurch – LD Lara Pringle gain from Conservative.
- East Hertfordshire DC, Watton-at-Stone – LD Sophie Bell gain from Conservative.
- Hertfordshire CC, Three Rivers Rural – LD Phil Williams gain from Conservative.
- Highland UA, Caol & Mallaig – LD Denis Rixson gain from SNP.
- Mendip DC, Wells St. Thomas – LD Tom Ronan gain from Conservative.
- North Norfolk DC, Worstead – LD Saul Penfold gain from Conservative.
- North Yorkshire CC, Knaresborough – LD David Goode gain from Conservative.
- South Northamptonshire DC, Whittlewood – LD Abigail Medina gain from Conservative.
- South Oxfordshire DC, Benson & Crowmarsh – LD Sue Cooper gain from Conservative.
- Southwark LB, London Bridge & West Bermondsey – LDs Humaira Ali, William Houngbo and Damian O’Brien (2 gains in New ward boundary.
- Sunderland MB, Pallion – LD Martin Haswell gain from Labour.
- Teignbridge DC, Chudleigh – LD Margaret Evans gain from Conservative.
- Teignbridge DC, Dawlish Central & North East – LD Martin Wrigley gain from Conservative.
- Warrington UA, Lymm South – LD Anna Fradgley gain from Conservative.
- Warwickshire CC, Stratford North – LD Dominic Skinner gain from Independent.
- Waveney DC, Southwold & Reydon – LD David Beavan gain from Conservative.
- West Berkshire UA, Thatcham West – LD Jeff Brooks gain from Conservative.
- West Somerset DC, Alcombe – LD Nicole Hawkins gain from UKIP.
- West Somerset DC, Minehead South – LD Benet Allen gain from Independent.
We successfully defended 18 seats too. Holding onto seats relies on excellent work from campaigners on the ground and from candidates taking time out of their lives to represent the Party.
Along with these 18 holds there were also eight tough losses, however we’re sure that with hard work and perseverance these seats can be won back next time round. Standing a candidate is extremely important in ensuring that people always have the option of voting for the Lib Dems.
We’d like to send a huge thank you and well done to the hard work of all the teams who have contributed to this success and may it continue in 2019!
Not included in these figures are some of the excellent results from Town and Parish councils who also made some excellent gains this year.
We hope to see another great year in 2019 with the important local elections taking place on Thursday 2 May.
If you have a spare hour you can find contact details of who to ring to help out on the forthcoming by-elections section of our website.
Or why not donate to the ALDC Fighting Fund so we can give more grants to local teams to help us win more by-elections.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!
**Note – there are different ways of calculating by-election figures. At ALDC we have consistently included ‘deferred elections’ in by-election statistics, which make our figures slightly different from those who don’t.**