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Sleaford & North Hykeham: Lib Dem vote almost doubles, rises to 3rd. Labour collapses.

by Ian Shires on 9 December, 2016

Published on Liberal Democrat Voice

Caron Lindsay

By |

Fri 9th December 2016 – 5:00 am

Well, I said earlier that double figures would be a very good result for the Liberal Democrats in Sleaford and North Hykeham. Had this poll taken place during the coalition years, we’d have ended up in last place with our tails very much between our legs. Our percentage vote went up from 5.7 to 11% and we beat the official opposition to come 3rd. We got more actual votes than we did in 2015 despite a turnout that was down fro 70% to 37%. The Tory and UKIP votes almost halved in comparison and Labour only managed a third of their 2015 total.

Conservative 17570
UKIP 4426
Lib Dems 3606
Labour 3363
Lincs Ind 2892
Independent 462
Loony 200
Independent 186
Independent 74
Bus Pass Elvis 55

This was far from a like-for-like with Richmond where we had, until 2010, held the seat. Nor had the area voted Remain. I wonder what we could have achieved with a Richmond style campaign from the start.

What a sorry excuse for an official opposition the Labour Party is. What exactly is the point in voting for them? By just aping the Government on the main issue of the day, they are making the same mistake that they did in Scotland and look where that got them.

Campaign managers Ed Fordham and Ian Horner had been working steadily to increase our reach over the 4 weeks of the campaign but were very much under the radar until last week. By that time, postal votes will have been cast.

They, the team and candidate Ross Pepper deserve our thanks every bit as much as Liz Leffman, Sarah Olney and their teams for delivering a result that shows that we are back in business everywhere. Tim Farron says:

This is a strong result for the Liberal Democrats and our candidate Ross Pepper, following our victory in Richmond Park where we overcame a 23,000 Conservative majority. It shows that the Liberal Democrats are back as an electoral force, now in areas that voted Leave as well as Remain and in a seat that has not elected a Lib Dem MPs in modern times.

With Labour yet again nowhere, and after losing their deposit in Richmond, the Liberal Democrats are the real opposition to the Conservative Brexit government.

Even though this area voted Leave, the chaos of the government’s Brexit negotiations has convinced many people that Theresa May’s Hard Brexit strategy isn’t working. The UKIP vote has dropped by 5,000 as voters see that there is no need to have a UKIP MP when sadly we effectively have a UKIP PM.

This result shows people are clearly concerned by the economic uncertainty caused by the government’s Brexit negotiations and the run-down of NHS services.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron’s Musings

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