Labour win both of this week’s by-elections

With the only by-election scheduled between now and May 5^th taking place in the Independent dominated Highland Council yesterday's two contests are likely to be the last with any real party political interest. Therefore, Labour should be quite pleased with their two victories just six weeks before the bumper night. They were expected to hold the Lewisham (London) seat but their victory in Torfaen (Wales) was less assured. They have an extraordinarily split Independent vote to thank for that particular success.

I'll start in Wales, where the Pontypool ward for the Torfaen Borough Council was vacant following the resignation of Independent Councillor Fred Wildgust. He had already been suspended for 12 months and was under investigation for another complaint made against him. Labour did not face a contest in this ward at the 2004 elections so it's slightly surprising that eight candidates put their name forward for this by-election. Labour were joined by the Conservatives, Plaid Cymru and no less than five different Independent candidates!

As non-party candidates took almost 70% of the vote in 2008 a strong Independent challenge was expected. But it would seem non-partisan vote spread too thinly between the five of them as John Killick managed to win for Labour on less than a third of the vote. Mike Harris was the leading Independent candidate falling just 17 votes of winning the seat. Ian Williams, whose previous involvement with Torfaen's People's Voice party would have given him a high local profile, was quite a way back in third place.

The result is quite significant locally as Labour currently run Torfaen as a minority administration. The extra Councillor should come in very handy in the run up to next year's full Council elections.

Torfaen County Borough Council
LAB		IND		CON		PC		PV		LD
20	+1	11	-1	5	-	3	-	3	-	2	-
Pontypool
						Votes			Vote %
John Killick (E)						178			31.2%
Mike Harris						161			28.2%
Ian Williams						80			14%
Paul Valene						50			8.8%
Nigel Harris						46			8.1%
Sarah Bousie						25			4.4%
Adrian Lang						18			3.2%
Gaynor James						12			2.1%

It was a lot more straight forward for Labour in the London Borough of Lewisham. The by-election in the Bellingham ward was taking place following the death of Labour Councillor Ron Stockbridge. He came third in this three member ward last May but he was comfortably ahead of the fourth placed Liberal Democrat candidate.

Reports on the by-election seemed to indicate the Lib Dems had picked a strong candidate and run a good campaign so they were hoping to avoid the usual large swing to Labour we have become accosted to in these types of contests. It will therefore be quite worrying for them that the Labour candidate Jacq Paschoud won with such ease. Despite their efforts the Lib Dems still suffered a 10% swing from them to Labour and finished third behind the Conservatives. Not exactly a moral boost for any budding Lib Dem Council candidates contesting Labour held wards. This win just adds to Labour's huge majority in Lewisham.

Bellingham (Lewisham)
	Votes	Vote %	+/-
Jacq Paschoud (E)	1100	51.4%	+8.3%
Simon Nundy	340	15.9%	-3.1%
Jenni Steele	334	15.6%	-11.1%
Ian Page (Socialist Alternative)	264	12.3%	+12.3%
Phil Laurie	100	4.7%	-0.8%