Previewing Super Thursday, 30th Jun 2022

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Britain Elects

41 min readJun 30, 2022

“All the right votes, but not necessarily in the right order”

It’s Super Thursday with ten by-elections on 30th June 2022! Of these, five are Conservative defences, Labour defend two, independents defend one, and there are two free-for-alls. Three of today’s polls take place in councils with elected mayors, and let’s start with the newest of those mayoralties…

South Croydon

Croydon council; caused by the election of Conservative candidate Jason Perry as Mayor of Croydon.

We are now almost two months on from the May 2022 local elections, at which all the councillors in all the London Boroughs were up for election. It’s now time for the first London by-election among the Class of 2022, a poll which directly follows on from the May 2022 elections.

On several occasions over the last few years this column has described Croydon as a local government disaster area. The council’s Labour administration had sunk a huge amount of both political and financial capital into a major redevelopment of Croydon town centre. Their strategy was to buy up shop and office space, empty it and build shiny new buildings in their place which could be let out at commercial rents. The first two parts of this cunning plan went well.

Then the pandemic hit, the value of office space on London crashed, and the council’s commercial partner for the town redevelopment pulled out. Suddenly Croydon were left holding a huge amount of empty office space which was no longer worth what they paid for it and wasn’t generating any rent. The council was effectively forced to declare bankruptcy, and central government sent the Commissioners in in an attempt to stabilise the borough’s finances.

Croydon Labour’s political capital disappeared along with the council’s financial capital. A referendum was called for late 2021 on establishing an elected mayor for Croydon, and the proposal passed with a large majority. Mayoral referendums tend to pass with large majorities only in councils which are political basket cases, places like Tower Hamlets or (for those with longer political memories) Doncaster. This was a clear signal that the public considered the Croydon Labour administration to be in that category.

However, this wasn’t guaranteed to result in a change of council control. Croydon is a very polarised borough, with a strongly Labour-voting north counterbalanced by a strongly Conservative-voting south. This polarisation extends to parliamentary level: of Croydon’s three constituencies, North is safe Labour, South is safe Conservative and Central is a key marginal. Nearly all of the borough’s wards are safe for one party or the other. Croydon has in the past produced a number of elections where the Conservatives carried the popular vote but Labour won the most councillors, which is partly down to the Conservative wards generally having higher turnouts.

For the inaugural Croydon mayoral election in May 2022 the Labour candidate was Val Shawcross, a former leader of the council who had since spent 21 years as the London Assembly member for Lambeth and Southwark. The Conservative candidate was Jason Perry, leader of the council’s Conservative group, who was also seeking re-election to the council in South Croydon ward. The result on first preferences was close: 35% for Perry, 33% for Shawcross, and 10% for the Lib Dems’ Richard Howard who was best of the rest. After transfers from Howard and the other candidates were redistributed, the final result was even closer: Jason Perry was elected as the first Mayor of Croydon with 38,612 votes to 38,023 for Shawcross, a majority of 589 votes. His election — a clear swing to the Conservatives against the London and national trends — ends eight years of Labour rule in Croydon.

In fact, Jason Perry won both the contests he entered in May because he was also re-elected as a councillor for South Croydon ward. He can’t serve as both elected mayor and councillor at the same time, and under the legislation his council seat was automatically vacated. It will be filled in this by-election.

Which brings us to South Croydon. This ward covers the area south of Croydon town centre along the main road and railway line, which run up a valley towards the North Downs and Brighton beyond. South Croydon railway station, a stop for local trains on the Brighton Line, provides a fast link to central London.

The present ward was created by boundary changes in 2018, mostly taking territory from the former Croham ward. That name refers to the ancient woodland of Croham Hurst in the south-east corner of the ward, where Neolithic remains and a Bronze Age barrow have been found. The 2011 census return for Croham had high levels of private renting — betraying its London location — and a high proportion of people with degrees. Education is a major employer here: Whitgift School is just outside the ward boundary, while South Croydon ward extends east to another independent school, the Royal Russell School. This institution has given us the actor Martin Clunes and one current MP: Mims Davies, the Conservative member for Mid Sussex further down the Brighton Line, is a Royal Russell School former pupil. One wonders what the school’s namesake and first president, the nineteenth-century Whig and Liberal prime minister Earl Russell, would have made of that.

This area has always elected Conservatives to Croydon council since London government was reorganised in the 1960s, usually with large majorities. In the first London borough elections the predecessor ward was Sanderstead North, which was redrawn as Croham ward in 1978. From 1986 to 1998 one of the councillors here was Sir Peter Bowness, who was leader of Croydon council for nearly 18 years until 1994 and was seen as a favourite local government figure of Margaret Thatcher. His only close call came in the 1986 election, when the Liberal/SDP Alliance came close to winning Croham. Bowness now sits in the House of Lords as a life peer.

The May 2022 election in South Croydon gave 40% to the Conservatives, 29% to Labour and 14% to the Greens who narrowly beat the Lib Dems for third place. This was actually a small swing to Labour from 2018. However, it was a much better Conservative performance than in the GLA elections twelve months previously: the Conservative mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey was ahead of Sadiq Khan by just 37–36 in South Croydon ward’s ballot boxes, while the London Members ballot for the Assembly gave 35% to the Conservatives, 32% to Labour and 15% to the Green Party.

Croydon council is hung following the 2022 elections. If the Conservatives hold this by-election they will draw level with Labour on 34 seats, with a crossbench — not something which has been seen in Croydon for many years — of two Greens and a Lib Dem councillor. The opposition do not have the two-thirds majority necessary to block Perry’s budget, but the mayor may need to work hard to get the rest of his programme through a council where his party is in a minority. Unless the Conservatives get lucky with by-elections or can pick up some defectors, four years of cohabitation awaits.

Perry’s election as mayor means that South Croydon will get its first new ward councillor in twenty years. Maria Gatland, Michael Neal and Perry had been ward colleagues continuously since 2002, and there aren’t many wards which can claim that. Perry’s service went all the way back to 1994 when he was first elected for the former Coulsdon East ward. Before the 2022 election only one of these people was deemed notable enough for Wikipedia, and it wasn’t Perry. Councillor Maria Gatland (née McGuire), born in 1948 to a middle-class family in Dublin, was a member of the Provisional IRA in 1971 and 1972, and was a lover of the IRA chief David O’Connell; her memoir of her experiences, To Take Arms, was published in 1973. Gatland subsequently moved to London and restored her reputation to the point that when her IRA past was eventually revealed, in 2008, she was Croydon council’s cabinet member for education.

Defending this seat for the Conservatives is Danielle Denton, who is described as a founding member of the South Croydon Business Association: she contested the town-centre Fairfield ward in May. Labour’s Ben Taylor also comes hotfoot from May’s election, in which he stood in New Addington South — a previously safe-Labour ward which the Conservatives gained this year. The Green candidate for this by-election is Peter Underwood, who was the party’s Croydon mayoral candidate in May: he polled 6.5% across the borough and finished fifth out of eight candidates. Also standing are John Jefkins for the Liberal Democrats, Kathleen Garner for UKIP and two independent candidates with long electoral histories. Andrew Pelling’s electoral career started when he was elected to Croydon council as a 22-year-old all the way back in 1982, and he has served as a Conservative London Assembly member for Croydon and Sutton (2000–08) and as a Conservative MP for Croydon Central (2005–10); Pelling has sat on Croydon council for both the Conservative and Labour parties, and he finished in fourth place as an independent candidate for Croydon mayor in May. Mark Samuel, who has fought this ward and its Croham predecessor at every election from 1990 to 2018, once managing not to finish last, is a perennial candidate in Croydon local by-elections who has sometimes been known to reach the dizzy heights of ten votes.

Unfortunately, we do need to have a word about the count arrangements. Croydon council’s count for the local elections last month was a case study in how not to organise an event: the plan devised by the returning officer was too ambitious, the venue (a school) was not a suitable one, and the arrangements which had to be hastily put in place when it became clear that the original count was running out of time left a lot to be desired. Some ward results were not declared until the Monday after polling day. This by-election will not be counted until Friday, and one hopes that the returning officer has learned some lessons from May’s débâcle and got her act together this time.

Parliamentary constituency: Croydon South (most), Croydon Central (part within Fairfield ward before 2018)
London Assembly constituency: Croydon and Sutton
ONS Travel to Work Area: London
Postcode districts: CR0, CR2

Danielle Denton ©
Kathleen Garner (UKIP)
John Jefkins (LD)
Andrew Pelling (Ind)
Mark Samuel (Ind)
Ben Taylor (Lab)
Peter Underwood (Grn)

May 2022 result C 1898/1872/1688 Lab 1378/1359/1196 Grn 682/605/508 LD 668/659/529 UKIP 117
May 2018 result C 2345/2169/2108 Lab 1633/1606/1575 Grn 442/395/339 LD 438/294 Ind 104
Previous results in detail

May 2021 GLA results (excludes postal voters)
Mayor: C 1397 Lab 1346 Grn 335 LD 197 Reclaim 97 Omilana 73 Count Binface 50 London Real 48 Women’s Equality 33 Rejoin EU 32 Let London Live 22 Obunge 19 UKIP 16 Animal Welfare 16 SDP 15 Heritage Party 15 Burning Pink 14 Farah London 13 Renew 7 Fosh 5
London Members: C 1324 Lab 1206 Grn 563 LD 276 Animal Welfare 67 Women’s Equality 64 CPA 63 Rejoin EU 59 Reform UK 45 Heritage Party 29 London Real 28 Let London Live 24 UKIP 19 Comm 17 SDP 14 TUSC 9 Londonpendence 6 Nat Lib 1

Bernwood

Buckinghamshire council; caused by the resignation of Conservative councillor Cameron Branston.

Our other poll in southern England today is the first by-election to the unitary Buckinghamshire council, which came into operation in 2020 but only held its first election last year for obvious reasons. Bernwood ward covers eight parishes in the Aylesbury Vale along the county’s border with Oxfordshire. None of these are called Bernwood: this name is a reference to Bernwood Forest, an ancient royal hunting ground which covered much of the area in the Anglo-Saxon and mediaeval eras.

The largest settlement within the ward is Haddenham, a rapidly-growing place with a commuter economic profile thanks to its location on the Chiltern railway line. Haddenham and Thame Parkway station lies on the Chiltern Railway line from London to Oxford and Banbury, and has regular bus links to Thame (just over the border in Oxfordshire) and Aylesbury. Despite this growth there are a lot of picture-postcard “wychert” buildings in Haddenham which have made it a favourite location for TV and film productions from Midsomer Murders to The Great Muppet Caper; there are also some large duckponds. Haddenham used to be a major centre for the breeding of Aylesbury ducks, who might well appreciate the rain which has been forecast for this week.

This column was in Haddenham in March 2019 (Andrew’s Previews 2019, page 47) to cover the final by-election held to Aylesbury Vale council. I wrote then that while Haddenham had a radical political tradition back in the day, it had been represented on that council by a full slate of Conservatives since 2007.

Maybe I should have looked more closely. The 2017 county elections for Bernwood division of Buckinghamshire county council had resulted in a strong second place for the Green Party which I did note in that preview, but I didn’t foresee the Greens going on to win the Haddenham and Stone by-election rather easily. That’s despite the fact that this result fits into a pattern which has been seen in a number of by-elections over the last few years. Stone (which is not part of the Bernwood division) lies on the route of the High Speed 2 railway line, and recent Buckinghamshire by-elections along the High Speed 2 route have often turned in very poor Conservative results. See for example Chesham and Amersham, last year.

The High Speed 2 line does not pass through Bernwood ward, which instead stretches west from Haddenham to take in Long Crendon and a number of villages beyond. This unit was originally drawn up for the 2013 election to Buckinghamshire county council; the 2021 elections to the new Buckinghamshire unitary council inherited the old county divisions but multiplied the number of councillors by three. Last year Bernwood split its three seats: the Green Party topped the poll with 38% of the vote and won one seat, the Conservative slate polled 34% and won the other two seats, and the Lib Dems came in third with 17%. Bernwood was the only Buckinghamshire ward to return a Green councillor: in seat terms the result of the election was 113 Conservatives, 15 Lib Dems, 14 independents and localists, 4 Labour and 1 Green.

The ward is part of the Buckingham parliamentary constituency, which reverted in 2019 to the safe Conservative seat it would have been had it not been represented by John Bercow, who had served as Speaker of the House of Commons since 2009; accordingly Bercow had been returned as a non-party candidate in the 2010–17 general elections. At the last general election Buckingham’s new Conservative MP Greg Smith, a former deputy leader of Hammersmith and Fulham council in London, had no trouble defeating a high-profile Lib Dem candidate: Stephen Dorrell had been a Conservative MP for Leicestershire from 1979 to 2015 and served as a Cabinet minister under John Major.

This by-election follows the resignation of Conservative councillor Cameron Branston, who has left these shores to take up a new job in Canada and now lives in the province of Ontario. He had served on Buckinghamshire council for only a year.

Defending this seat for the Conservatives is David Hughes, who is seeking to make a quick return to local government: until losing his seat in May he was a member of Cherwell council in Oxfordshire, representing Launton and Otmoor ward, despite living in the Buckinghamshire village of Grendon Underwood. The Greens have reselected Richard Torpey, who fought this ward last year; he gives an address in Aylesbury. Standing for the Lib Dems is Sue Lewin, who is a former headteacher at Haddenham’s primary school. Labour candidate Lindsey Poole completes the ballot paper.

Parliamentary constituency: Buckingham
ONS Travel to Work Area: High Wycombe and Aylesbury (part), Oxford (part)
Postcode districts: HP17, HP18, HP27, OX9

David Hughes ©
Sue Lewin (LD)
Lindsey Poole (Lab)
Richard Torpey (Grn)

May 2021 result Grn 1880/1274/1152 C 1665/1541/1533 LD 845/617/324 Lab 517/503/320
May 2017 Buckinghamshire county council result C 1482 Grn 965 Lab 497 UKIP 184
May 2013 Buckinghamshire county council result C 1197 UKIP 591 Lab 428 Grn 348 LD 155
Previous results in detail: 2013–17 2021

Fazakerley

Liverpool council, Merseyside; caused by the resignation of Labour councillor Lindsay Melia.

We now leave southern England to consider the two Labour defences this week, starting in Liverpool. Fazakerley lies on the northern boundary of the city of Liverpool and also on the northern boundary of Liverpool’s built-up area. The housing along Foxhunter Drive and Barlow’s Lane, within the Liverpool city boundary, backs directly onto the outward straight of the Grand National course at Aintree, which is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton.

One part of Aintree which is definitely part of Liverpool is the Aintree University Hospital, which lies at the centre of Fazakerley ward. This is now home to the Urgent Care and Trauma Centre, opened by the Duke of Cambridge in 2017, which treats trauma patients from all over Merseyside. Also within this ward is HMP Altcourse, built in the 1990s as the first PFI prison; now run by G4S, this is a Category B prison holding remand prisoners and offenders from north-west England. Benjamin Mendy, the France and Manchester City footballer, was held here on remand for a time while awaiting his forthcoming rape trial.

Much of Fazakerley’s area is given over to industry. The ward was once home to a large Royal Ordnance Factory, which made rifles and machineguns for the Second World War effort and for some years afterwards. The part of the ward next to the A580 East Lancs Road is filled with warehouses and industrial units. The local residents here tend to live in the northern half of the ward, where Fazakerley railway station (on the Kirkby branch of the Merseyrail Northern Line) links the ward to Liverpool city centre.

This is a working-class area in common with much of Merseyside. On the current ward boundaries, which were introduced in 2004, Fazakerley ward has voted Labour on every occasion, and has been very safe for the party since the city’s Lib Dem vote started to collapse around 2008. The most recent Liverpool city council election, in 2021, saw Labour defeat the Lib Dems in Fazakarley by a 67–12 margin.

The list of Fazakerley ward councillors has tended to change quite a lot in recent years. Paul Brant has served the ward since 2015, while Lindsay Melia and Frazer Lake — whose name is just one letter away from being an anagram of his ward — were both in their first terms after being elected in 2018 and 2019 respectively. There is one better-known political name in the ward’s recent past. Steve Rotheram, who represented Fazakerley ward from 2002 until 2011 and was MP for the local constituency of Liverpool Walton from 2010 to 2017, has held two of Liverpool’s three mayoral posts: he was Lord Mayor of Liverpool in 2008–09, during the City of Culture year, and since 2017 he has been the elected mayor of the Liverpool City Region. Rotheram had been present at Hillsborough on the day of the 1989 disaster, and he was one of the organisers of a star-studded cover version of the Hollies’ He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother which was released in 2012 to raise money for the Hillsborough families’ legal costs. It became that year’s Christmas number one.

Rotheram had left the council by the time the Liverpool city mayoralty was established, and this post instead went to the then council leader Joe Anderson at its inaugural election in 2012. Big Joe had a controversial time as mayor, and he didn’t get the Labour selection to replace Rotheram as MP for Walton in 2017; his political career was effectively brought to an end in December 2020 when he was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit bribery and witness intimidation. His successor Joanne Anderson (no relation) suffered the indignity of being taken to a runoff in the 2021 mayoral election, at which support for Labour in the city took a sharp drop. Rotheram, by contrast, was re-elected as mayor of the wider city region in the first round with an increased majority.

Things then quickly took a turn for the worse for Liverpool city council. The following month central government sent in the Commissioners, and in another piece of municipal vandalism from the then local government secretary Robert Jenrick the city’s electoral scheme has been changed. The 2022 local elections here were cancelled, and from next year Liverpool will go over to elections for the mayor and the whole of the council every four years. Councillors’ terms were varied accordingly, which meant that Lindsay Melia — who would have been due for re-election last month — had her term extended to five years.

Mayor Joanne’s party management has left something to be desired as well. The Labour group on the council split in April, after a number of Labour councillors — including Melia — voted against the mayor’s budget which had proposed cuts of £20 million. Melia resigned from the council altogether, and the rest of the rebels have formed a breakaway group called the Liverpool Community Independents. This has reduced the ruling Labour group to 60 councillors plus Joanne at the time of writing, with the opposition consisting of 11 Lib Dems, 8 members of the breakaway group, 4 Greens, 4 continuing Liberals and 2 independents. This column was last in Liverpool in April while the breakaway was playing out, covering two by-elections including a poll for Warbreck ward, which borders Fazakerley; Warbreck was previously just as safe for Labour if not more so, but the by-election there was nearly lost to the Liberal Democrats.

And things have continued to go wrong for Liverpool Labour since April, following a scandal over the council’s electricity bill. Yes, those energy price rises affect local government too, but Liverpool badly screwed up on this front. In 2018 the council had agreed a four-year energy contract with Scottish Power, which was due to run until May this year with an option to extend the contract for an additional 12 months. The council had agreed in principle to go for an extension. But in March this year Scottish Power stopped accepting new commercial contracts in the face of rocketing energy prices, meaning that the council was unable to negotiate a new fix for its electricity; a series of errors by officials then meant that the council was automatically transferred onto Scottish Power’s standard variable electricity contract. This is estimated to have cost Liverpool £16 million, effectively wiping out nearly all the budget cuts agreed at such political cost within the last few months. One of the city’s schools warned of job losses last week in order to balance the books. The scandal has led to Fazakerley ward councillor Paul Brant taking over the finance portfolio in Anderson’s cabinet; the other ward councillor, Frazer Lake, is also in the cabinet with responsibility for social care and health.

So this poll might be more exciting than it looks on paper, particularly as the Labour selection has proved to be a controversial one. Helen Stephens got the Labour nomination over protests from the party’s Fazakerley ward branch, who complained that she had briefly resigned from the party after failing to get the selection for April’s Warbreck by-election. Jack Williams of the Lib Dems, who appears to be fighting his first election campaign, might fancy his chances given his party’s near-miss in a neighbouring ward in April. The Green Party have selected Paul Corry, while the ballot paper is completed by independent candidate Laura Wharton who is endorsed by the breakaway Liverpool Community Independent council group: Wharton stood in a by-election last November for her home Clubmoor ward, finishing in third place on that occasion. The chance of a Conservative win here was negligible, but it is a little surprising that the party hasn’t managed to rustle up a candidate.

Parliamentary constituency: Liverpool Walton
ONS Travel to Work Area: Liverpool
Postcode districts: L9, L10, L11

Paul Corry (Grn)
Helen Stephens (Lab)
Laura Wharton (Ind)
Jack Williams (LD)

May 2021 result Lab 1912 LD 336 Grn 257 C 204 Lib 133
May 2019 result Lab 1897 Grn 208 C 159 LD 115 Lib 81
May 2018 result Lab 2219 C 177 Grn 115 LD 108 Lib 49
May 2016 result Lab 2068 LD 294 UKIP 260 Grn 138 C 84
May 2015 double vacancy Lab 5211/4930 UKIP 961 LD 385 C 369/251 Grn 367/365 Lib 138
May 2014 result Lab 2163 UKIP 539 LD 156 Grn 133 C 85 Lib 23
May 2012 result Lab 2622 LD 280 UKIP 189 C 71 Grn 65 British Freedom Party 50 Lib 35
May 2011 result Lab 2831 LD 412 C 164 Grn 123 Lib 73
May 2010 result Lab 4250 LD 1415 C 324 BNP 292 Lib 187 Grn 75
February 2010 by-election Lab 1525 LD 807 BNP 234 Grn 84
May 2008 result Lab 1811 LD 608 BNP 440 C 154 Lib 68 Grn 64
May 2007 result Lab 1814 LD 1159 BNP 324 C 77 Grn 65
May 2006 result Lab 1450 LD 1333 Lib 121 C 113
June 2004 result Lab 1872/1796/1765 LD 1320/1131/1091 C 321 Lib 173/164/146 Ind 116
Previous results in detail

Ollerton

Newark and Sherwood council, Nottinghamshire; caused by the resignation of Labour councillor Neal Mitchell.

We now divert back south to the Midlands for our second Labour defence of the week, in the Dukeries of Nottinghamshire. This area of the old Sherwood Forest takes its name from the fact that in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was home to four country houses occupied by dukes. One of those was Thoresby Hall, the seat of the Dukes of Kingston and later (after the dukedom became extinct in 1773) of the Earls Manvers. The present Thoresby Hall was built in 1868 for the third Earl Manvers: it’s now a Grade I-listed country house hotel.

Sherwood Forest was according to legend the home of Robin Hood, who robbed the rich to give to the poor. Well, the aristocrats have left Thoresby Hall now and the area is rather poor, but that’s nothing to do with Robin Hood. We can see this from the fact that Thoresby Hall had to be repaired in 2020 from public funds: that was at the expense of the Coal Authority, after the hall suffered from mining subsidence. There is coal deep under the Dukeries, and this countryside became the centre of the Nottinghamshire coalfield in the inter-war years. Thoresby Hall gave its name to Thoresby Colliery, next to the village of Edinstowe, which remained in operation all the way up to 2015; it was the last-but-one UK deep coal mine to close.

Edwinstowe is a ward of its own on Newark and Sherwood council, while Thoresby Hall is contained within Ollerton ward. This is named after the twin towns of Ollerton and New Ollerton, which were also transformed out of all recognition by the mining industry. Ollerton Colliery started operation during the General Strike of 1926, and eventually closed in 1994. Despite this the 2011 census placed Ollerton ward within the top 100 wards in England and Wales for those employed in mining or quarrying, although this only amounted to 51 people and the census was taken before Thoresby closed.

Ollerton is one of the last Labour holdouts in the Nottinghamshire coalfield. The ward has survived successive boundary reviews to be unchanged since 2003, and it has had a full slate of three Labour councillors since an independent councillor was defeated in 2011. This will be the fourth council by-election on these boundaries: the last by-election was in May 2017 (Andrew’s Previews 2017, page 110) with the one before that in September 2014. The first by-election on these boundaries, in January 2006, returned the Labour candidate without a contest.

The ward is part of the larger Ollerton division of Nottinghamshire county council, which takes in the Boughton ward and part of the safe-Conservative Sutton-on-Trent ward to the east. Boughton ward was narrowly gained by the Conservatives in 2019; the Tory councillor, Brendan Clarke-Smith, was subsequently elected as Conservative MP for Bassetlaw, and the resulting by-election to Newark and Sherwood council in May 2021 was held by the Conservatives with a greatly increased majority. On the same day Labour’s Mike Pringle was narrowly re-elected as county councillor for Ollerton division, which suggests that Labour must have carried this ward then. The Tories have however represented Ollerton at parliamentary level since 2010: it is part of the Sherwood constituency held by the Leader of the Commons, Mark Spencer.

This fourth Ollerton by-election follows the resignation of Neal Mitchell, who had won the last by-election here in May 2017 and was re-elected in 2019 as part of the Labour slate which had a 64–36 lead over the Conservatives. Defending for Labour is county councillor Mike Pringle, who won the September 2014 by-election here and then won a by-election to the county council three months later. Once you pop, you can’t stop. Pringle stood down from Newark and Sherwood council in May 2015 but is now seeking to return. The Conservative candidate is Kelly Fordham, who gives an address in Edwinstowe. All contests here since 2015 have been straight Labour-Conservative fights, but this time there is a third option for the electors: independent candidate Jeremy Spry, who returns from the 2021 county elections.

Parliamentary constituency: Sherwood
Nottinghamshire county council division: Ollerton
ONS Travel to Work Area: Mansfield
Postcode district: NG22

Kelly Fordham ©
Mike Pringle (Lab)
Jeremy Spry (Ind)

May 2019 result Lab 1133/1043/945 C 628/606/578
May 2017 by-election Lab 1469 C 913
May 2015 result Lab 2392/2380/2137 C 1286/1212/1053
September 2014 by-election Lab 837 C 323 UKIP 280
May 2011 result Lab 1056/997/906 C 562/464 Ind 467/312
May 2007 result Lab 724/623/593 Ind 676 C 511/499
January 2006 by-election Lab unopposed
May 2003 result Lab 594/518/506 Ind 524/329 C 368
Previous results in detail: 2003 2007–14 2015–

Midway

South Derbyshire council; caused by the resignation of Conservative councillor David Angliss.

We are midway through the year 2022, and midway through this week’s column, so let’s go to the Midway ward in the Midlands. This is the middle of the fifteen wards of South Derbyshire when they are listed alphabetically, and is close to the middle of the district and arguably close to the middle of the country — the point in Great Britain furthest from the sea, Coton in the Elms, is just a few miles south. Surely there can’t be a better ward to embody Middle England?

Well, judge for yourself. Midway is the northern of the five wards which are based on the Derbyshire town of Swadlincote and its suburbs. Swadlincote was an industrial town whose riches were derived from the rocks below it: the town lies on coal measures and clay deposits of particularly high quality, resulting in coalmining, brickworking and pottery being the major industries. Even the town’s motto reflected this: the Latin E terra divitiæ refers to the “riches from the earth”.

Midway is quite a working-class ward which still has a large manufacturing element to its economy. This is exactly the sort of Midlands territory which has been trending towards the Conservatives in recent years, and this ward has turned from safe Labour in 2011 to being closely-fought in 2015 and 2019. The 2015 election here returned the Labour slate with majorities of 96, 21 and 9 votes; in 2019 Midway split its three seats, with the Conservatives gaining one seat and Labour holding two. The Conservative and Labour slates both polled 38% of the vote in 2019, with the remaining 24% going to UKIP. Midway ward is split between three divisions of Derbyshire county council, all of which voted Conservative last year: this included Swadlincote North, which the party gained from Labour.

So, lots of good Conservative recent news at the ballot box — but winning elections and actually running the show are different matters. The 2019 South Derbyshire election returned a Conservative majority, which has subsequently fallen apart: in 2021 the Tory splinter group installed a Labour minority administration, which continues to run the council.

One of the prime movers behind the split was David Angliss, who was the first leader of the resulting independent group. The level of infighting among the South Derbyshire Conservatives and ex-Conservatives is illustrated by an unsavoury incident in which Angliss was investigated for a tasteless meme he had distributed in April 2020, that caused offence to one of his former council colleagues. The Local Democracy Reporting Service reported earlier this year (link) that Angliss was found not to have breached the council’s code of conduct.

With Angliss now off the scene we have an interesting by-election to replace him, which takes place in a marginal ward and could affect the balance of power on the council. This currently stands at 15 Labour and 16 remaining Conservatives, with four independent councillors holding the balance of power. If the Conservatives can hold this seat they might be in a better position to depose the minority Labour administration.

The Midway by-election is a straight fight. Defending for the Conservatives is Barry Appleby, who previously stood here as a UKIP candidate in 2015. Challenging for Labour is Louise Mulgrew, who stood in the last by-election to South Derbyshire council in Seales ward last September; this should be more promising territory for her.

Parliamentary constituency: South Derbyshire
Derbyshire county council divisions: Melbourne (part), Swadlincote Central (part), Swadlincote North (part)
ONS Travel to Work Area: Burton upon Trent
Postcode districts: DE11, DE15

Barry Appleby ©
Louise Mulgrew (Lab)

May 2019 result C 690/602/572 Lab 683/670/614 UKIP 431
May 2015 result Lab 1486/1411/1399 C 1390/1309/1279 UKIP 977/858/784
May 2011 result Lab 1330/1290/1273 C 922/801/765
Previous results in detail

Bridlington North

East Riding council, East Yorkshire; caused by the death of Conservative councillor Chad Chadwick.

It’s the end of June, the weather forecast is dubious, so let’s go to the beach. Bridlington is a good location for that, with its wide sandy beach produced by extensive coastal erosion. At Bridlington the geology changes and with it the coast, as the soft clay cliffs of East Yorkshire are replaced by the harder chalk cliffs of Flamborough Head which lie within this ward.

These are the only chalk seacliffs in the North of England, and they’ve seen a lot of history. Danes Dyke, a prehistoric ditch, forms a defensive barrier across the headland; while in September 1779 you could look from the cliffs onto the Battle of Flamborough Head, a victory for John Paul Jones and his Franco-American naval squadron during the American War of Independence. These days those who cast their gaze on the cliffs tend to be birdwatchers, on the lookout for migrant birds and the seabirds that nest here.

Just outside the protection of Danes Dyke is Sewerby Hall, a Georgian country house in extensive gardens which in recent years has been reopened to the public as a museum. The hall lies on the outskirts of Bridlington, a minor port and classic seaside resort which is home to most of the ward’s population. Bridlington lies on a bay which has been known since antiquity: Ptolemy, in his 2nd-century AD atlas, described it as a “bay suitable for a harbour”, and 2nd-century BC Greek coins have been found by archaeologists in the modern Bridlington harbour area.

The modern population of Bridlington may not be Greek but does tend towards the ancient. In the 2011 census Bridlington North ward ranked 12th in England and Wales for retired population (37% of the workforce) and made the top 50 wards for those aged 65 or over. Anybody under 45 living here is young.

Bridlington is the major town in the East Yorkshire parliamentary seat, which provides a secure base for Tory MP Sir Greg Knight. Given the ward’s age profile it should not be a surprise to find that Bridlington North has normally been a strongly Conservative ward, although other parties have increasingly got in on the act in recent years. UKIP did win a seat here in 2015, although they didn’t defend it in May 2019; Chad Chadwick picked up the open seat, joining two political veterans — Richard Harrap and Chris Matthews — as the Conservative councillors for Bridlington North. This Conservative slate was opposed only by a single Labour candidate, who lost 71–29.

Richard Harrap suddenly passed away less than two weeks after the May 2019 election, having served on the council for twenty years. The resulting by-election in July 2019 had a very different result. With a much wider choice of parties for the voters to choose from, the Liberal Democrats gained the by-election with 44% against just 27% for the Conservatives and 12% for the regionalist Yorkshire Party, which had won two of the three seats in Bridlington South ward two months previously.

Well, that complicates things a bit for the second Bridlington North by-election of this term, which follows the passing of Chad Chadwick in April at the age of 79. He had been suffering from liver cancer. Chadwick was another political veteran, having been first elected in 1991 to the former East Yorkshire district council, although his political service was interrupted: he was first elected to the modern East Riding council in 2007 for Bridlington South ward, and lost his seat there to UKIP in 2015 before finding a new home in Bridlington North ward in 2019.

Defending for the Conservatives is Jonathan Bibb, who has lived in the town for 13 years. The Lib Dems, who won the last by-election here, have selected Jayne Phoenix who recently moved here from Sheffield to make a fresh start after her catering business was severely affected by the first lockdown. The Yorkshire Party candidate is Kimberley Thomas, who runs a business offering affordable rental properties to local families. Also standing are David Butland for Labour and Carlo Verda for the Social Democratic Party, who had councillors in Bridlington until as late as 2014. The by-election that year, in Bridlington Central and Old Town ward, which followed the death of the party’s last councillor in the town turned in a result which may well prove to be unique for all time: a UKIP gain from SDP.

Parliamentary constituency: East Yorkshire
ONS Travel to Work Area: Bridlington
Postcode districts: YO15, YO16

Jonathan Bibb ©
David Butland (Lab)
Jayne Phoenix (LD)
Kimberley Thomas (Yorkshire Party)
Carlo Verda (SDP)

July 2019 by-election LD 1308 C 815 Yorkshire Party 349 UKIP 196 Lab 135 ind 125 ind 76 Ind 58
May 2019 result C 2101/2050/1929 Lab 855
May 2015 result C 3115/2505/1904 UKIP 2185 Lab 1796 Ind 1533
May 2011 result C 2713/2449/2161 Lab 1313/1085/990
May 2007 result C 2231/1921/1894 LD 1225/1223 BNP 1162 Lab 757/675
May 2003 result C 1487/1319/1275 Ind 718/546/516/239 LD 630/588 Lab 571/499 SDP 426/202/183
Previous results in detail

Cleveleys Park

Wyre council, Lancashire; caused by the death of Conservative councillor Rita Amos.

From one seaside town to another: we travel from the East Coast to the West. The town of Cleveleys lies on the Fylde peninsula immediately to the north of Blackpool, indeed it’s difficult for non-locals to see the join between the two towns. Cleveleys is more of a dormitory town than a seaside resort; if you want fresh air and fun, Blackpool is only a tram ride away. The modernised Blackpool Tramway extends north through Cleveleys on its way to Fleetwood: the Rossall Beach tram stop lies on the western boundary of this ward.

Cleveleys Park ward marks the northern end of Blackpool’s built-up area, as there are open fields north from here towards Fleetwood. The Park of the name is presumably North Drive Park, a rather small open space within the postwar housing of this ward. Although Cleveleys is not as upmarket as Lytham St Annes, it is a popular retirement centre — certainly a cut above Blackpool — and its census return shows quite an old age profile with high levels of owner-occupation. For those who are young enough to work, public sector employment dominates: a number of government departments were evacuated to Cleveleys during the Second World War, and following on from that the Department for Work and Pensions (and its predecessors) was traditionally a major employer here.

Boundary changes for the 2015 election greatly reduced this ward in size with a cut from three councillors to two. The pre-2015 Cleveleys Park ward was marginal, but in its current incarnation the ward is safe Conservative. The 2019 election here was a battle between two married couples, a lineup which a TV game show production team would be rather satisfied with: the Amoses (the Conservative slate) defeated the Martins (the Labour slate) by 63–37 in a straight fight. The ward is also part of a safe-Conservative division of Lancashire county council, Cleveleys East.

Rita Amos, who passed away in March, was a long-serving Wyre councillor who was first elected in 1999, for Victoria ward which then lay to the south of this ward; after standing down from the council in 2007, she returned in 2011 as a councillor for Cleveleys Park ward. Her widower, Ian, survives her as the ward’s other councillor.

Defending for the Conservatives is Richard Rendell, who was the Conservative election agent here in last year’s Lancashire county elections. In another straight fight he is opposed by Wayne Martin, who was a Labour councillor for this ward until losing his seat in 2007; he also contested the ward in 2019 alongside his wife, Penny.

Parliamentary constituency: Blackpool North and Cleveleys
Lancashire county council division: Cleveleys East
ONS Travel to Work Area: Blackpool
Postcode district: FY5

Wayne Martin (Lab)
Richard Rendell ©

May 2019 result C 789/771 Lab 469/429
May 2015 result C 1149/1117 Lab 838/749 UKIP 478/460
Previous results in detail

Berwick Hills and Pallister

Middlesbrough council, North Yorkshire; caused by the resignation of independent councillor Lee Garvey.

Our final English by-election of the week takes us back to traditional Yorkshire, although this time exiled within the North East region and the former county of Cleveland. Berwick Hills and Pallister are south-eastern suburbs of Middlesbrough, located on the eastern side of Ormesby Beck either side of the Ormesby Road.

This area might look OK on a map, with a fair amount of green space around including the municipal Pallister Park, but don’t be fooled. All the census areas covered by this ward are in the 10% most deprived in England. The council have put up a statue of “Orme the Viking” next to Ormesby Beck to try and big up the area’s Viking roots, but they’re not fooling anyone: Middlesbrough grew from nothing in the mid-19th century, and most of the housing here is 1960s council estates. Also part of the regeneration effort is James Cook railway station, which opened in 2014 to serve James Cook University Hospital which is just over the railway line from Berwick Hills.

At the time of the 2011 census most of this area was covered by Pallister ward, which was in the top 70 wards in England and Wales for both “semi-routine” and “routine” occupations; over 48% of the workforce were in these two working-class occupational groups. That’s for those who were working: unemployment here was over 10% in 2011, within the top 60 wards in England and Wales, and 44% of the adults here had no qualifications (within the top 40 wards in England and Wales). Boundary changes for the 2015 Middlesbrough council elections brought in part of Park End ward, which if anything is more working-class: Park End had the highest semi-routine and part-time working figures of any ward in the North East region.

As with many economically-deprived areas, the list of famous sons from Berwick Hills and Pallister includes a number of footballers. Top among that list is Stewart Downing, who grew up in Pallister and worked his way up to the top of English football via the Middlesbrough FC youth system. Downing played in the Premier League for the Boro, Aston Villa, Liverpool and West Ham, winning the League Cup with the Boro and Liverpool; and he was in the Middlesbrough team which lost the 2006 UEFA Cup final to Sevilla. He also won 35 caps for England, making two substitute appearances in the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals. Downing retired from football last year after playing 20 seasons in the top flight or the second tier of English football, with a final record of 722 appearances and 63 goals in club football — a career he can be well satisfied with.

The boundary changes from 2015 have left this ward split between two rather contrasting parliamentary seats: the safe Labour constituency of Middlesbrough and the awkwardly-named seat of Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, which was gained by the Conservatives in 2017 against the national trend and now has a large Conservative majority. Local elections here tell a different story again, because Middlesbrough council went over to the elected mayoral system in 2003. Four of the five Middlesbrough mayoral elections to date have returned independent candidates, with three of those going to Ray “Robocop” Mallon and the most recent contest in 2019 won very easily by independent Andy Preston.

This is where it starts to get difficult for an outsider to work out what’s going on in the Boro. The simultaneous 2019 Middlesbrough council election returned 23 independent councillors, 20 Labour and 3 Conservatives; Labour lost their three seats in Berwick Hills and Pallister to an independent slate by the wide margin of 64–30. There have been a number of defections and by-election changes since then, but as far as the party composition is concerned they have cancelled each other out. The independent councillors are currently divided into 10 members of the Middlesbrough Independent Councillors Association (which includes Berwick Hills and Pallister councillor Raymond Sands), nine members of the Middlesbrough Independent Group (which includes Berwick Hills and Pallister councillor Donna Jones), and three councillors who are not in either group. Mayor Preston is not a member of either of the main independent groups and his relationship with the various independent factions has been rather fractious at times, but his cabinet currently includes representatives of all three factions together with all three Conservative councillors.

Top of the poll in Berwick Hills and Pallister in 2019 was Lee Garvey, who ended up in the Middlesbrough Independent Group at least for a time. He had recently attempted to defect to the Labour Party, but the local press reported in April that Labour had rejected his party membership application because of “allegations of anti-Semitism regarding social media posts in 2015” (link). Harvey resigned from the council shortly afterwards.

So we have a by-election in Berwick Hills and Pallister. The defending independent candidate is Steven James, who has been endorsed by both of the council’s main independent groups: he works for a national charity that supports people with learning disabilities and complex needs, and he finished as runner-up at a by-election in the neighbouring Park End and Beckfield ward in 2019 (Andrew’s Previews 2019, page 191). Labour have reselected local resident Ian Blades, who was a rather distant runner-up here in 2019. Also standing are John Cooper for the Conservatives, Sophie Drumm for the Lib Dems and Annette Fermin for the Green Party.

Parliamentary constituency: Middlesbrough (part within Pallister ward before 2015), Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (part within Park End ward before 2015)
ONS Travel to Work Area: Middlesbrough and Stockton
Postcode district: TS3

May 2019 result Ind 782/652/573 Lab 369/294/282 C 67/48
May 2015 result Lab 1221/1152/841 Ind 700 C 217
Previous results in detail

Barraigh agus Bhatarsaigh; and
Sgìr’ Ùige agus Càrlabhagh

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Scotland; caused by insufficient nominations in the May 2022 ordinary elections.

We finish for the week with more from the May 2022 Matters Arising file, as we come to the first by-elections of the new municipal year in Scotland. At the time of writing all of the new Scottish councillors elected in May are still with us and still in post; but there are three vacancies to fill on the island councils, because there were some wards where not enough candidates stood in May. Two of those vacancies will be filled today, so let’s take a trip to the Outer Hebrides.

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, the Council of the Western Isles (and I hope the locals will forgive me for using that Anglophone phrase below), has had new ward boundaries introduced this year, and thereby hangs a tale. Since Scottish local elections went over to proportional representation in 2007, all wards in Scotland have returned either three or four councillors. While this did have the benefit of making contested elections the norm in the Highlands and Islands, the change did have some disadvantages, particularly for islands. There were a number of Scottish islands which had previously justified one councillor, but which from 2007 found themselves grouped with other islands or part of the mainland to form a ward.

One island which was particularly unhappy with this treatment was Barra, at the southern end of the Outer Hebrides. This is rather different to the rest of the Western Isles in that its population is predominantly Catholic rather than Presbyterian. The island’s main settlement is Castlebay, named after the ruined offshore stronghold of Kisimul Castle: this was held for centuries by the Clan MacNeil, who used it as a pirate base against the English during the reign of James VI. The Chiefs of the Clan MacNeil are now based in the USA, having moved across the Atlantic in the nineteenth century along with many of Barra’s residents: in the 21st century the then Chief, US legal scholar Ian Macneil, leased Kisimul Castle to Historic Scotland for £1 and a bottle of whisky per year and transferred the island to the Scottish Government.

There are a few options for travel to Barra. Cal Mac run ferries to Oban on the mainland, with a journey time of five hours, and to Eriskay to the north. There are also regular flights from Glasgow to Barra Airport, which has three runways — more than Heathrow — but rather restricted opening times. This is because the runways and apron of the airport are a beach, and planes can only take off and land while the beach is exposed at low tide during daylight hours. Barra Airport is claimed to be the only airport in the world where scheduled flights take off and land on a beach.

If you want to see Barra without making the journey over the Atlantic, you have a few choices. The Gaelic-language TV channel BBC Alba is a regular visitor, the TV cameras followed the island’s new Catholic priest Father John Paul in two series of An Island Parish in 2011 and 2012, and the island was the location for a feature film: the 1949 Ealing comedy Whisky Galore!, which was based on a real-life incident on the nearby island of Eriskay during the Second World War. Sir Compton Mackenzie, who wrote the original novel and co-wrote the screenplay for the film, lived on Barra and is still there today, lying at rest in St Barr’s churchyard at Eoligarry. Which brings us to politics, because Mackenzie was involved in the 1928 founding of the National Party of Scotland, a predecessor of the modern SNP.

Together with the neighbouring island of Vatersay, Barra was a single-member ward of the Western Isles council until the introduction of PR. I haven’t been able to trace the inaugural 1995 result, but from 1999 the councillor here was Donald Manford of the SNP.

Manford was re-elected under PR in 2007, 2012 and 2017 at the top of the poll, scoring well over the required quota in the expanded and controversial ward of Barraigh, Bhatarsaigh, Eirisgeigh agus Uibhist a Deas, which returned four councillors. The 2007 election returned two SNP councillors and two independents; the SNP lost a seat to Labour in 2012, but got it back in 2017.

The 2016–21 SNP government in Holyrood then passed the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018, which reformed Scottish local government rules by allowing wards on or including offshore islands to have fewer than three councillors. It also increased the upper limit from four councillors to five. Boundaries Scotland duly drew up a new ward map for the Scottish councils which have offshore islands, and this new flexibility has enabled them to recreate Barra and Vatersay ward. Now with the Gaelicised name of Barraigh agus Bhatarsaigh, the ward’s electorate only entitles it to 1.3 councillors but Boundaries Scotland have rounded that up to two, in light of Barra’s isolation. After all, we are well over a hundred miles by road, with two ferry crossings, from the Western Isles council headquarters in Stornoway.

In hindsight, maybe this over-representation was a mistake. The SNP’s Donald Manford retired at this election, and only one candidate stood for Barraigh agus Bhatarsaigh: Kenneth MacLean, who stood as an independent candidate, was declared elected unopposed. This by-election is to fill the ward’s other seat.

On the other hand, there is another ward in the Outer Hebrides which is also holding a by-election today for exactly the same reason. Many miles north of Barra we come to the new ward of Sgìr’ Ùige agus Càrlabhagh. This is the western end of the Isle of Lewis, rugged moorland which includes Lewis’ highest point (Mealasbhal) and where villages are few and far between. The ward name refers to the parish of Uig and the village of Carloway on the west coast; these are Viking names, and the Vikings left behind here some of their most important artefacts. Found in a sand bank in the bay of Camas Uig in 1831, the walrus ivory sculptures of the Lewis Chessmen date back to the twelfth century and form one of the largest collections of mediaeval chess pieces. Most of the 93 chessmen are now owned by the British Museum, with 11 held by the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. The British Museum has lent six of its pieces back to Lewis, where they are on display at the Museum nan Eilean in Stornoway.

Uig parish also includes a major survival from pre-Viking times: the Callanish Stones, a circle of standing stones which has been dated to the third millennium BC. The stones are the most prominent of a number of other megalithic landmarks in the area, not all of which are on Lewis: one of these, known to archaeologists as “Callanish VIII” and to locals as “Tursachan” (“standing stones”), is on the offshore island of Great Bernera. Callanish VIII overlooks the Bridge over the Atlantic, which links Great Bernera to Lewis: completed in 1953, this was one of the first European bridges built using pre-stressed concrete. There is more ancient stonework at Carloway: the broch of Dun Carloway, probably dating from the first century AD, is mostly still standing.

The boundaries of this ward go a lot further offshore than Great Bernera. Sgìr’ Ùige agus Càrlabhagh also takes in the Flannan Isles, a group of seven small islands 20 miles off the west coast of Lewis. These islands have had no permanent population since 1971 when the lighthouse on the largest island, Eilean Mòr, was automated. The Flannan Isles Lighthouse has passed into popular culture after all three of its lighthouse keepers disappeared in December 1900. The Northern Lighthouse Board’s investigation concluded that they had been swept away by a freak wave during a storm, but speculation continues; writers from Peter Maxwell Davies (in his opera The Lighthouse) to Terrance Dicks (in the 1977 Doctor Who story “Horror of Fang Rock”) have given us their own take on the story over the years.

Until May Uig and Carloway formed the majority of the ward of Sgir’Uige agus Ceann a Tuath nan Loch, which also took in the north of the Lochs district to the east. Local election results here are rather difficult to follow partly because of the number of candidates called Macdonald, which is the most common surname on Great Bernera: the initial 2007 election here returned three Macdonalds for the three seats, Annie Macdonald for the SNP, independent Alex Macdonald and Norman Alexander Macdonald for Labour. Independent John Macdonald missed out.

In 2012 Alex stood down and was replaced by new independent Donald Cudig Macleod, Annie lost her seat to her SNP running-mate Bill Houston, and Norman Alexander stood for re-election as an independent and topped the poll. Independent Norman Alexander Macdonald should not be confused with independent Norman “Puss” Macdonald, who finished in sixth place. Unfortunately, the new SNP councillor Bill Houston died shortly afterwards; the resulting by-election went to independent Angus Morrison Morrison and Norman Alexander Macdonald were re-elected in 2017, while Cudig Macleod lost his seat to Ronald Fraser who became the first Conservative member of the Western Isles council.

The boundary changes for 2022 moved the Lochs area out of this ward, which was renamed as Sgìr’ Ùige agus Càrlabhagh in consequence. The new ward was allocated two councillors, again a significant rounding up from the 1.7 it was entitled to on electorate grounds. , Again only one candidate stood: Ronald Fraser of the Conservatives, who was re-elected unopposed. This by-election is for the seat which went unfilled in May.

These polls will not affect the political complexion of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, which retains its independent majority. With these two seats still to come, there are currently 20 independent councillors, 6 SNP and 1 Conservative. The 2017 election had returned an all-male council, but there are now women councillors here: Susan Thomson was elected last month in Uibhist a Deas, Èirisgeigh agus Beinn na Faoghla and Frances Murray in Steòrnabhagh a Deas ward, both for the Scottish National Party.

Both by-elections will be contested. There are three candidates for the final seat in Barraigh and Bhatarsaigh, one of whom is a former councillor for the area. Calum Macmillan, a crofter from over the water in South Uist, was elected in 2017 on the SNP ticket as Donald Manford’s running-mate; he subsequently ended up in Alex Salmond’s vanity project Alba and stood for re-election on their ticket in May in Uibhist a Deas, Èirisgeigh agus Beinn na Faoghla ward, polling 7% and finishing seventh out of eight candidates. He is now standing here as an independent as is Iain Macneil, who is also based in South Uist and contested its ward in May: Macneil polled 11% and finished sixth. That leaves only one candidate who is actually from Barra: Gerard Macdonald runs Isle of Barra Oysters and also tends to a croft at Eoligarry. He completes a trio of independent candidates.

The final seat in Sgìr’ Ùige agus Càrlabhagh looks rather harder to call. It has attracted seven candidates, four of whom are independents. Sophie Brown is the development officer for the Uig Development Trust; Norman Misty Macdonald (not to be confused with the recently-retired councillor Norman Alexander Macdonald, or with Norman Puss Macdonald) gives an address in Stornoway; Iain Mackinnon makes cider in Carloway; and Donald John Macleod (not to be confused with Donald Cudig Macleod) was one of four Macleods to contest An Taobh Siar agus Nis ward in May, finishing fifth out of sixth candidates. There also some party political candidates here, with three of the Holyrood parties standing. Laura Cameron-Lewis, a theatre director and local resident, is standing for the Scottish National Party; the Lib Dems have turned up at a Western Isles council election for the first time since 2007 in the form of crofter and former Royal Navy engineer Jamie Dobson; and Anne Edwards stands for the Scottish Green Party. The Conservatives, having one won seat without a contest in May, have decided not to try and push their luck for a second. We have to read out the usual Scottish instructions here: Votes at 16 and the Alternative Vote apply, so mark your ballot paper in order of preference.

That’s the last of the previews for this week’s Super Thursday, but stay tuned: we have another Super Thursday coming up next week.

Barraigh agus Bhatarsaigh

Parliamentary constituency: Na h-Eileanan an Iar
ONS Travel to Work Area: Western Isles
Postcode district: HS9

Gerard Macdonald (Ind)
Calum Macmillan (Ind)
Iain Macneil (Ind)

May 2003 result SNP 316 Ind 181
May 1999 result SNP 418 Ind 151
2003 result in detail

Sgìr’ Ùige agus Càrlabhagh

Parliamentary constituency: Na h-Eileanan an Iar
ONS Travel to Work Area: Western Isles
Postcode district: HS2

Sophie Brown (Ind)
Laura Cameron-Lewis (SNP)
Jamie Dobson (LD)
Anne Edwards (Grn)
Norman Macdonald (Ind)
Iain Mackinnon (Ind)
Donald Macleod (Ind)

No previous results on these boundaries

If you enjoyed these previews, there are many more like them — going back to 2016 — in the Andrew’s Previews books, which are available to buy now (link). The 2021 book is coming soon. You can also support future previews by donating to the Local Elections Archive Project (link).

Andrew Teale