Success in St Albans - Lib Dems win both By-Elections

1.25.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Sun 6th Jun 2010

These by-elections were caused by the untimely death in March of Mike Ellis, who had held a St Albans City seat for some time, and a Herts County Council seat for just over a year. With the changed parliamentary situation and the current political turmoil they were an interesting test of public opinion at a time of transition.

In the City ward (Ashley Ward) where Mike had a strong personal following the Lib Dem vote share dropped just half a per cent, with the Conservatives and the Greens down 3.7% and 5.0% respectively. Notably the slack was taken up by Labour who put on 9.2% - but from a low base after their poor 2006 performance.

In the County Division of St Albans South, which is larger and where it is more difficult to make a personal impact, Lib Dems made steady progress, with a 2.5% increase in vote share - on top of the 3.7% increase achieved last year when Mike Ellis first won it. The Labour vote share was unchanged since last time and the Green vote crashed, transferring some to us and some to the Conservatives giving them a 4.4% increase.

All in all a better night for the Lib Dems than for the other parties and two more misses for the Conservative to add to their greater failure to achieve a majority at the General Election. Lib Dems retain control of St Albans City & District as Andy Grant becomes a councillor and they are back up to 17 Herts County Councillors again as Martin Frearson joins the team.