Luton Liberal Democrats hold Wigmore
On Wednesday evening Alan Skepelhorn was elected to Luton Borough Council winning the local by-election for the Wigmore ward. This means that Luton Liberal Democrats have held on to this seat and we keep our numbers at 8 on the Council.
The by-election was held after the sad death of long-standing local campaigner Roy Davies.
I am really pleased. Not least because Alan was a colleague of mine when I was on the council — he was previously a councillor in Round Green ward — and I know what an asset he will be to the Lib Dem group.
But also because this was a really positive result for the Liberal Democrats in Luton. I think the local party was always hopeful of retaining the seat — but I am surprised at the size of the majority. This was a very bad result for the Tories — in effect dropping from second to third — and the Labour challenge was not as strong as I expected it to be. This actually represents a 3.1% swing from Labour to Lib Dems.
It is only one result and in a relatively strong area — but after the bashing we took in the last local elections — this does give some hope that the worst is over.
Credit must go to the small team who worked really hard to get this result. Myself, I didn’t really do much to help — but I did do a little — which is the most active campaigning I’ve done for a long while.
The full result was:
| Alan Skepelhorn | Lib Dem | 982 | 47% |
| James Taylor | Labour | 517 | 24% |
| John Young | Conservative | 281 | 13% |
| Lance Richardson | UKIP | 230 | 11% |
| John Magill | Independent | 62 | 3% |
| Marc Scheimann | Green | 27 | 1% |
Total Votes 2,102
Turnout 24.2%
(I gave the result from last time the ward was fought in May 2011 here)
More coverage of the result here:
- Luton on Sunday: Liberal Democrat Alan Skepelhorn wins Wigmore by-election
- Luton Today: Lib Dems triumph in Wigmore by-election
- Liberal Democrat Voice: By-election watch: 10/11 April… Luton bringing me sunshine…
- Independent: By-elections boost for Lib Dems ahead of 2 May county council elections
- Luton Borough Council: Wigmore by-election results 2013
This content was originally posted on my old Strange Thoughts blog.