In a shock result which rendered the previously vociferous Labour Twitterati silent last night, City Independent candidate Jackie Barnes won the Springfields and Trent Vale by-election.
The seat formerly held by Sarah Hill until her resignation from the cabinet & the city council was thought to be a safe Labour seat.
The turn out was a disappointing 21.6%, rumour within the Civic Centre was that Labour had called the election to coincide with the start of the summer holiday period hoping that a reduced turn out would increase their share of the vote with support from the party faithful.
Lib Dem candidate Les Porch came third and Conservative candidate Harold Gregory came in a disappointing fourth. Michael Coleman of the BNP trailed in to 7 place behind Independent Gary Elsby.
Jackie Barnes increased her vote from 277 in 2011 to 370 while Labour lost over 50% of their vote with it dropping from 537 in 2011 to 245 last night.
The final count was:
- Barnes (City Ind) 370 votes
- Aumir (Lab) 245
- Porch (Lib Dem) 152
- Gregory (Cons) 109
- Bednarski (UKIP) 105
- Elsby (Ind) 36
- Coleman (BNP) 27
- Wright (TUSAC) 14
- Leat (Dem Nat) 2
The council chamber is still a Labour majority with 33 seats, City Independents now have 8 seats, Conservatives 2 and 1 unaffiliated.
Posted from here.
How many votes for the BNP. And Mole 10, that must have been the guys fishing you were talking to.
I was out delivering leaflets with NorSCARF and I witnessed Coleman walk past a house and not deliver a BNP leaflet. When I reached the house I saw that there was a black child in the garden. At least the guy is the racist he claims to be. I am glad the racists were trashed at the ballot box
The lesson for the Far-Right from this is simple: stick to canvassing in chavvy areas where the dole dossers want someone else to blame for their own inadequacy.
Try standing in areas with decent folk, you’ll get humiliated like you did here.