UK By-elections thread, 2021-

[Torrain]

Bet Ed Davey has an inhumanly wide grin on his face tonight. The set would have been a heavy lift for them in a general election, but it’s a fair sight easier to win than some of their recent by-election pick-ups.

And with a decent incumbent, it’s probably way more winnable in the general next year…

[YL]

Bet Ed Davey has an inhumanly wide grin on his face tonight. The set would have been a heavy lift for them in a general election, but it’s a fair sight easier to win than some of their recent by-election pick-ups.

And with a decent incumbent, it’s probably way more winnable in the general next year…

It's being split in two in the boundary review, but I think that's probably still true of the proposed Glastonbury & Somerton (which I imagine is the one of the two a Lib Dem by-election winner would stand in).

[Coldstream]

Bet Ed Davey has an inhumanly wide grin on his face tonight. The set would have been a heavy lift for them in a general election, but it’s a fair sight easier to win than some of their recent by-election pick-ups.

And with a decent incumbent, it’s probably way more winnable in the general next year…

It's being split in two in the boundary review, but I think that's probably still true of the proposed Glastonbury & Somerton (which I imagine is the one of the two a Lib Dem by-election winner would stand in).

The new Frome isn’t much worse, of all the NES bit that’s coming in there’s only two Tories left, 4 Labour and the rest are Lib Dem already.

[Silent Hunter]

David Warburton, the MP for Somerton & Frome who was suspended from the Conservatives over various allegations, is apparently resigning.  So it looks like we have another one!

The seat was Lib Dem from 1997 until 2015 and would fall to them on a 15% swing.

Confirmed that he's going.

[CumbrianLefty]

LibDems picked their candidate for this one a while ago, nuff said.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

A fun piece of trivia regarding Somerton & Frome is that David Heath won it four times in a row for the LibDems, but never with a percentage majority higher than 3% and only once with a majority over one thousand.

[Blair]

Its funny on reflection the Tories who won in 2015 in the South-West really were the canary in the coalmine in terms of the Conservatives errrr candidate quality.

[Estrella]

A reminder of why we've gotten here, from a year less a week ago:

https://mobile.twitter.com/RespectIsVital/status/1510338799288688644
Well, he looks rather impatient awaiting his fate.

[YL]

Nigel Adams' tenure as Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead lasted just one week, and he has been replaced by David Warburton.

The writ has just been moved for the resulting Somerton & Froome by-election, and so it will presumably be on 20 July along with Selby & Ainsty and Uxbridge & South Ruislip.

[CumbrianLefty]

How much time is left for Dorries to make it four July 20th byelections? Not a lot, presumably.

[YL]

How much time is left for Dorries to make it four July 20th byelections? Not a lot, presumably.

It's 21 to 27 working days after the writ is moved.  So the last day to move the writ for 20 July would be this Wednesday, but even then Central Bedfordshire Council could decide to have it on the 27th instead.

BTW the last time there were three Westminster by-elections on the same day was 29 November 2012.  The time before that was only two weeks earlier.  The last time there were three Government defences on the same day depends on what exactly you count: 23 November 2000 counts if you think of Betty Boothroyd's seat as essentially Labour-held, but if you don't count that then I think you have to go all the way back to 4 November 1976, assuming you count John Stonehouse's seat as a Labour defence.  Labour held Newcastle Central but lost Walsall North and Workington.

[CumbrianLefty]

The writ has just been moved for the resulting Somerton & Froome by-election, and so it will presumably be on 20 July along with Selby & Ainsty and Uxbridge & South Ruislip.

That has now been confirmed.

[Tintrlvr]

The writ has just been moved for the resulting Somerton & Froome by-election, and so it will presumably be on 20 July along with Selby & Ainsty and Uxbridge & South Ruislip.

I appreciate the phonetic spelling of "Frome" for all of the mispronunciations that are surely happening as people read the posts in this thread out loud.

[YL]

The writ has just been moved for the resulting Somerton & Froome by-election, and so it will presumably be on 20 July along with Selby & Ainsty and Uxbridge & South Ruislip.

I appreciate the phonetic spelling of "Frome" for all of the mispronunciations that are surely happening as people read the posts in this thread out loud.

Maybe I should have written it as Vroom, as per the traditional Zummerzet accent.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Ah s'Right.

[Blair]

We also have the chance of a Scottish by election which I actually think will be the most interesting one; we've had a complete lack of them for the last decade. The last one iirc actually saw Labour do relatively well and they might have been able to win if they hadn't been throwing everything at the rather ill-fated local elections.

I wonder if the lack if because the SNP MPs have broadly kept themselves out of trouble, are quite young & there's an internal culture where you don't quit to screw the party over.

[CumbrianLefty]

Actually there were a fair few veterans in the 2015 SNP tsunami, its more their until recently almost scarily successful "democratic centralism" which may have been a factor.

[YL]

The Lib Dem candidate in Somerton & Frome spoke to the Guardian.  It did not go well.

[TheTide]

The Lib Dem candidate in Somerton & Frome spoke to the Guardian.  It did not go well.

About 17 minutes in is where the car crash starts...

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/audio/2023/jun/22/fromes-byelection-battle-head-or-heart-politics-weekly-uk

[Tintrlvr]

Yikes. She's been a councillor for a while in a competitive seat so I would think she would generally be capable as a candidate. Maybe just a bad morning?

[CumbrianLefty]

It is claimed she has had previous media outings without much mishap, so slightly odd.

[YL]

17 candidates for Uxbridge & South Ruislip, including some "interesting" names

Kingsley Hamilton Anti Ulez (Independent) [1]
Blaise Maxime Pascal Baquiche (Lib Dem)
Danny Boy Beales (Lab) [2]
Cameron Swaran Bell (Independent) [3]
Count Binface (Count Binface Party)
Piers Corbyn (Let London Live) [4]
Laurence Fox (Reclaim)
Steve Gardner (SDP)
Ed Gemmell (Climate Party) [5]
Sarah Charmian Green (Green)
Richard John Howard Hewison (Rejoin EU)
Howling Laud Hope (OMRLP)
Rebecca Jane (UKIP)
77 Joseph (Independent) [6]
Enomfon Udoka Ntefon (Christian People's Alliance)
No Ulez Leo Phaure (Independent) [7]
Steve Tuckwell (Con)

[1] "Anti Ulez" is the "surname" here.  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_Low_Emission_Zone
[2] Yes, that really is the name on the list.
[3] Has stood in the past for the Conservatives in Hillingdon council elections
[4] Jeremy's out there brother, again.
[5] Councillor for Hazlemere ward in Buckinghamshire.  The party is roughly speaking "market green".
[6] Yes, that's what it says.  Stood in 2019 in Southend West, and in the 2008 Haltemprice & Howden by-election under his real name, Thomas Darwood.
[7] Is it better to put your single issue in your first name or your surname?

[YL]

A mere 8 for Somerton & Frome.

Lorna Irene Bromley Corke (Christian People's Alliance)
Martin John Dimery (Green)
Sarah Joanne Dyke (Lib Dem)
Bruce David Evans (Reform UK)
Neil William Guild (Lab)
Rosie Mitchell (Independent) [1]
Faye Marie Purbrick (Con)
Peter Kevin Richardson (UKIP)

[1] "Independent Socialist", according to her Twitter

[TheTide]

Isn't Danny Boy Beales a character in EastEnders? 

[YL]

13 candidates for Selby & Ainsty

Andrew Philip Gray (no description) [1]
Claire Holmes (Con)
Mike Jordan (Yorkshire Party/no description) [2]
Dave Kent (Reform UK)
Keir Alexander Mather (Lab)
Nick Palmer (Independent) [3]
Guy Phoenix (Heritage)
Sir Archibald Stanton (OMRLP)
Matt Walker (Lib Dem)
Arnold Francis Ignatius Warneken (Green)
John William Waterston (SDP)
Luke John Wellock (Climate Party)
"Yorkshire Tyke" Cllr Tyler Callum Wilson-Kerr (Independent) [4]

[1] Has a website where he is described as "The AI-Powered Candidate"
[2] The party name was missed off the form, but the party logo will be on the ballot paper.
[3] I presume not the former Labour MP
[4] sic; parish councillor in Aberford (Leeds); formerly in the Yorkshire Party; got into trouble last September for writing a republican message in a tribute book for the Queen and again in February for saying that he hoped a Tube station in London collapsed...