County Council Elections
May 1st County Council results were a victory for the Liberal Democrats. We took 21% of the seats fought and control of Shropshire, Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire. Our own focus was on Kent where we helped Tim Prater win the Crediton, Sandgate & Hythe East ward with 37% of the vote. Tim thanks us for our support. We are now the opposition in Kent, winning 5 other seats in the Tunbridge Wells area, a total of 12.
However, the media was more focussed on the success of Reform UK, and in Kent they took 57 seats, reducing the Tories from 61 to 6 councillors. In Tim’s ward Reform UK came second with 33% of the vote. The only thing that we saw of them during our campaigning was one voter who said he was supporting Reform UK (his partner apologised) and a discarded leaflet as we delivered Tim’s eve of poll.
There hasn’t been much concern about Reform UK in East Sussex to this point, though they did win a by-election in Bognor Regis and were taking 20-30% of the vote in other West Sussex by-elections. If they heard the drums in Hastings, they were beating retreat – they lost their council seat and came a distant third in the general election. However, there is no room for complacency; if we are to win the Sussex mayoralty next year, we must up our game.