Lib Dem Success in Next Door Bedfordshire

9.35.30am GMT Thu 17th Dec 2009

Another Lib Dem Success in Next Door Bedfordshire

9.11.58pm GMT Fri 11th Dec 2009

When Lib Dem Mayor, Dave Hodgson won the Bedford Mayoral Election in the summer he automatically had to resign as a local councillor. So this meant a by-election - held on Thursday 10th December.

The result was another good Liberal Democrat victory underlining the party's long-term winning streak in the East of England.

Liberal Democrat Andy Gerard was elected as the new Councillor for Kingsbrook Ward. He achieved an emphatic victory, with Labour and the Tories a long way back in second and third place respectively. The Liberal Democrats' share of the vote increased, while on a poor night for the Conservatives, their vote share fell by 7.5%.

This sort of result appears to confirm that in real elections with real voters the Liberal Democrats are far ahead of the national opinion polls.

The full results were as follows:

Andrew Gerard (Liberal Democrat) - 661;

James Saunders (Labour) - 370;

Adam Pritchard (Conservative) - 150;

Tony Hare (Independent) - 85;

Patrick O'Rourke (Independent) - 73;

Turnout: 18.4%