UK local by-elections, 2019

[beesley]

Finally, one by-election on May 30th here.

Gosport, Brockhurst

Lib Dem 51.5 (+10.3)
Con 22.6 (-12.2)
BUSP 17.4 (+17.4)
Lab 8.4 (-4.7)

What on earth was the British Union & Sovereignty Party doing standing here, letting alone garnering a respectable result? From what I can tell on Wikipedia, it's a minor Scottish unionist party.

Who knows, but there are two potential explanations: one is that he did better than expected because of Brexit Party hype (name seems Brexity) in leave-voting Gosport, or that he is well known enough locally. The latter seems more likely on paper.


https://twitter.com/HfdsCouncil/status/1136920237427896320

https://twitter.com/Kishan_Devani/status/1136764144684847111

[beesley]

Just two contests tonight for which the Holy Word is here.

Herefordshire, Whitecross

It's Our County 60.7 (+13.0)
Lib Dem 28.1 (+10.5)
Con 11.2 (-3.3)

East Riding of Yorkshire, Bridlington North

Lib Dem 42.7 (+42.7)
Con 26.6 (-43.7)
UKIP 11.4 (+11.4)
Yorks 6.4 (+6.4)
Lab 4.4 (-25.3)
Ind Dixon 4.1
Ind Robson 2.5
Ind Milne 1.9

Lib Dem gain Bridlington North from Con

That Bridlington performance is standout great for the lib Dems. I wonder how it happened?

[beesley]

you're talking about very low turnout elections that are even more so than normal since both major parties are as popular as the plague right now so even the partisans that'd vote in a local by-election at the start of summer are reconsidering that and that's when you get weird results.  Factor in the possibility for the candidate being a strong candidate and its hardly shocking - this sort of thing is what the Libs used to do all the time.

Agreed. I was more interested in what actually happened as opposed to how, just out of curiosity, but you're right.