As I anticipated, the Conservatives were heavily beaten in yesteday’s by-election in Drypool in Hull. In fact in a seat they held they were beaten into 4th place behind the National Front candidate as Linda Chambers for the Liberal Democrats stormed to victory. It shows two things to me: one, that the people of Hull are comfortable with the changes that the Liberal Democrats are bringing to the city and, two, that the Conservatives remain a long way from mounting any sort of recovery to their fortunes in the North. As I’ve said in the blog before ,this was a difficult seat for the Conservatives to hold but nevertheless to put in such a poor result was surely a humiliation.
This is what the Hull Daily Mail is saying in its online version:
Lib Dem candidate Linda Chambers polled 1,306 votes to secure the seat vacated by Conservative Andy Sloan who resigned before Christmas because of work commitments.
Labour’s Gary Wareing finished second with 891 votes while the National Front’s Mike Cooper came third on 184 votes. Conservative Andrew Allison polled 117 votes. The turnout was 26.7 per cent.
The result increases the overall Lib Dem majority at the Guildhall to 15.
Lid Dem leader Carl Minns said: “I am very pleased because it shows the public are still backing the way we are trying to reform the council.”
Tags: Conservatives, Drypool, Hull, Linda Chambers
