English local elections, May 2014

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

I'll be interested to see the vote shares in Rotherham.

[Supersonic]

Conservatives also gain Kings Norton, Birmingham.

LDs lose Hall Green, Birmingham to Labour.

Labour maintain control (naturally).

*also for anyone watching the BBC coverage, Winston McKenzie is drunk, and frightening.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Rotherham wasn't far from being even worse for Labour: most of the wards they won were close and in particular they only held Holderness by three votes.

Yes; for a moment early on it looked as though there might have been something close to a UKIP sweep, which would have been... urgh.

Obviously we shouldn't ignore the significance of the Euro elections being on the same day (greatly boosting UKIP across the land), but all the same this is pathetically bad.

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

The ward I've just moved house to voted UKIP

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

Is there any place to watch video or audio of the results?  I think I missed the Radio 4 and 5live coverage

[MaxQue]

Hammersmith and Fulham is a Labour gain, 26-20 over Conservatives.

[YL]

The ward I've just moved house to voted UKIP

What sort of place is it?

[YL]

It seems Labour may have done well in London.  Perhaps more generally they've done well in places where UKIP aren't a factor: see also Cambridge.  Elsewhere things seem patchy, with Birmingham disappointing.

UKIP are struggling to win that many seats: they seem to be able to get 30% or so in a lot of places but that often isn't enough to win.  FPTP isn't kind to them.  There are a few places where they did make the breakthrough, of course.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Elsewhere things seem patchy, with Birmingham disappointing.

But expected; a big farrago about waste disposal policies hurt Labour in the outer ring of suburban wards.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I'll be interested to see the vote shares in Rotherham.

44 UKIP, 40 Labour, apparently. Which, hilariously, means only a small percentage drop for Labour from 2010!

[YL]

I'll be interested to see the vote shares in Rotherham.

44 UKIP, 40 Labour, apparently. Which, hilariously, means only a small percentage drop for Labour from 2010!

A curiosity regarding Rotherham.  In 2008, their previous worst result in the borough, Labour lost five wards, two to the BNP (Brinsworth & Catcliffe, Maltby) and three to the Tories (Anston & Woodsetts, Wales, Wickersley).  All five stuck with them last night.  (The two seats which were Tory holds in 2008, Hellaby and Sitwell, both went UKIP, though.)

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Yeah, this was much more of a Rotherham town centric horrible result (though UKIP did win wards elsewhere, of course), which explains much of the difference. Which reminds me of the occasional very, very bad result for Labour in some Valleys local authorities (i.e. RCT in 1999), which, when they happen, are often linked to local scandals.

Incidentally I do wonder whether there's a chance that UKIP might have led in the popular vote for the locals here and not the Euros? It seems counter intuitive and impossible, but there was obviously massive tactical and whatever voting for them...

[afleitch]

Wading though some 'constituency' results. UKIP lead in the wards that make up the Dudley North seat.

[Zanas]

Why is Rotherham so important ?

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

The ward I've just moved house to voted UKIP

What sort of place is it?

Typical ex-industrial small town, which would have had a mix of cotton and coalmining.  White working-class, essentially.

The other Bolton ward UKIP won (Hulton) is a socially divided ward being a mixture of Over Hulton on the A6, which is a well-off commuter area, and more deprived housing on the edge of Bolton proper.

[YL]

Some snippets:

Greens did well in Bristol.  In particular they beat the Lib Dems in Redland, which I thought was a very safe ward for the yellows.

Labour took control of Redbridge, apparently the first time they've ever done that.

Next door to Rotherham, Labour seem to be holding their seats in Barnsley, and have gained Penistone West from the Tories.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Why is Rotherham so important ?

It's no more or less important than anywhere else, it's just the result there was unusual.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

A UKIP gain that no decent person will be particularly upset about occured in the Fratton ward of Portsmouth, where Mike Hancock lost his seat.

[YL]

First Sheffield result in, in the safe Labour ward of Manor Castle: easy hold, Greens second, TUSC third, Con 4th, LD 5th.  No UKIP candidate here.

Edit: three more, Mosborough, Beighton and Birley, all in the south-east of the city.  Reasonably comfortable Labour holds but with strong UKIP showings.

Greens seem confident that they've won both Broomhill (from LD) and Central (from Lab).  Neither would be a surprise.

[afleitch]

The locals aren't really telling us much. It's business as usual (when comparing with 2010 locals which were very good for Labour in spite of the GE) in a number of councils that have reported. UKIP are making gains as expected (though tell that to the pundits on the telly this morning) but still have, at the moment have won half the councillors that the Lib Dems have (which they won in 10 on the back of Clegg-mania) It's the strange ones like Rotherham and Hammersmith (and Eastleigh to be fair) that are generating interest.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It's the strange ones like Rotherham and Hammersmith (and Eastleigh to be fair) that are generating interest.

And note that the 'defeat' in Rotherham and the actual defeat in Hammersmith were both self-inflicted (same with loss of LibDem majority in Pompey). Spectacular local results are usually the result of local issues... so long as there aren't many specular results in total.

[afleitch]

It's the strange ones like Rotherham and Hammersmith (and Eastleigh to be fair) that are generating interest.

And note that the 'defeat' in Rotherham and the actual defeat in Hammersmith were both self-inflicted (same with loss of LibDem majority in Pompey). Spectacular local results are usually the result of local issues... so long as there aren't many specular results in total.

Very true. London is obviously very good for Labour and wins by UKIP in some areas are giving us our first taste of electoral 'geriocracy' but at the same time two UKIP councillors in Bolton does not maketh a f-cking summer.

[YL]

UKIP have won a seat in Sheffield, West Ecclesfield
EDIT and apparently East Ecclesfield too

Greens have indeed won Central.

Nether Edge: Lab gain from LD, Greens came second.
Lib Dems doing OK in Heeley constituency, held Graves Park and regained Beauchief & Greenhill from the councillor who defected to Labour.

Impressive Green gain in Broomhill.  Lib Dem vote collapsed.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The bad publicity over the council's financial problems doesn't seem to be hurting Labour in Wolves (at least not so far) - both Wednesfield seats gained.

[YL]

The Lib Dem leader in Sheffield's "chicken run" to Crookes hasn't worked: Labour gain (helped by my vote).  Greens third, UKIP fourth, ex-LD independent fifth, TUSC last.  (No Tory candidate.)

A third UKIP seat, this time the one I expected, Stocksbridge & Upper Don.  (So they have won all three Sheffield wards in the Penistone & Stocksbridge constituency.)  The defending Lib Dems came last out of six.