Council byelection results from yesterday

Ashford DC - Tenterden South Ward 

Con 277  Ashford Ind 179, UKIP 72  , Lib Dem 40 , Lab 36  

Con hold. Swing of 0.7% from Con to Ashford Ind 

Corby DC - East Ward 

Lab 1063, Con 252, BNP 141, LD 37.

Lab hold. Swing 6.6% from Con to Lab

Hammersmith & Fulham - Town Ward

Con 768, Lab 416, LD 331 (21.3%, -3.8), UKIP 39 (2.5%, +2.5).

Con hold. Swing of 7.6% from Con to Lab

East Hampshire DC - Horndean Downs Ward

Con 315, Lib Dem 274, Lab 73, UKIP 63  

Con hold. Swing of 17.4% from Con to Lib Dem

Isle of Anglesey- Gwyngyll Division

Ind 378  UKIP 93 

Ind gain from PC. 

Isle of Anglesey Council - Llanbedrgoch Division

PC 182, Ind 92 + 92 (40.4%, -35.7), UKIP 89 (19.6%, +19.6).

PC gain from Independent. Swing of 26% from Ind to PC

Oxfordshire CC - Cowley & Littlemore Division

 Lab 1606, Con 384, Green 330, Lib Dem 167

Lab hold. Swing of 15.9% from Con to Lab 

Waltham Forest- Larkswood Ward

Con 1392,  Lab 472, Lib Dem 79, Green 70, Liberal 64

Con hold. Swing of 8.9% from Lab to Con

Special congratulations to two newly elected councillors. First of all to Cllr Andrew Brown who succeeds Stephen Greenhalgh in Town Ward. I have seldom come across an activist with more hearty good humour than Andrew. He rather needed it yesterday, as we trudged the affluent streets off Fulham Road pleading with yummy mummies to go to the Polling Station despite the pouring rain. I was pleased to have my trusty West London Free School umbrella. The Twitter hashtag changed from #brownfortown to #drownfortown. As well as being great fun, Andrew will be a highly effective and hard working colleague helping us to keep up momentum for radical change.

Secondly, congratulations to one of our regular contributors Cllr John Moss of Waltham Forest. He is well known to readers of this blog for his bold and expert policy insights especially on housing. His influential paper Principles for Social Housing Reform, co-authored with Stephen Greenhalgh, is essential reading.

Rather amazingly, John not only won but secured a huge swing from Labour as against the last time the council seat was fought during the General Election. Waltham Forest is a Labour-run council, although with this sort of swing, whether it remains so in two years times is rather uncertain.

In the interim I don't think John will let them get away with much. Perhaps he should break into song for his maiden speech. As dear old Sting used to croon:

Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every smile you fake
Every claim you stake
I'll be watching you

John is having a rest over the weekend, but he has agreed to write an article for us on Monday telling us all about it.