Scott Raven wins District Council by-election for Lib Dems in Quainton

Congratulations to Scott Raven on winning the District Council by-election for Lib Dems from the Tories in Quainton.

The figures:

Scott Raven, LDM: 564 46.4%

Conservative 492 (40.5%)

Labour 113 (9.3%)

Green 47 (4%)

Spoilt 3

Total 1219

Turnout 47.7%

@PolitiStatsUK helpfully added this: there was no Ind (-23.1), as last ttime; and no UKIP (-22.3) as previous.

This was one of the first results to be declared on the night of May 3rd, when many other places, including London, had all out-elections (covering the entire council.)

It was a hard-fought contest, made that much harder for the LibDems as we had not contested this seat for some years. We had no data to draw on, and had to conduct our canvassing, gathering support by going door to door, rather than drawing on information drawn from past elections, as the better-resourced Tories could do.

It meant a small team of activists from the Buckingham constituency, together with a team from the adjoining Aylesbury party, delivering leaflets and knocking on doors for three weeks. Then standing outside polling stations on election day and reminding supporters to vote, if they hadn't already done so. The Tories did as much. It is the only way to win, or lose, close elections such as this, however good your candidate is. Remember, in local elections usually fewer than one in three of those eligible to vote actually do so. In this election the figure was 47%.

This by-election does not affect the running of the council.

The Conservatives now hold 41 seats. The LibDems have 12 councillors. The Independents hold 4 seats. Labour has 2.

So that is still an impregnable majority, which allows the Tories still to do pretty well as they please.

But we urgently needed more opposition voices in the council chamber, to hold the ruling Conservative group to account, to challenge them, to ask difficult questions and to scrutinise their proposals, which ultimately are funded by you, the council taxpayer. We now have one more councillor, to fulfil that vital role in opposition.