Election 2024: South West political preview

Labour have won the Kingswood Parliamentary Constituency for the first time since 2005 in a hotly contested by-election caused by the resignation of former MP Chris Skidmore.

Super Thursday: History repeats in Gloucestershire – Tories hold firm

Polling Station

After eleven years in National government, the Conservatives at all tiers of local government in Gloucestershire would typically have closed their eyes and waited for the inevitable electoral kicking. But these are not normal times with the Labour Party fighting Tory tanks on northern lawns and the Lib-Dems still flatlining in Westminster. The Conservatives in […]

Super Thursday: Conservative Wiltshire ship sails to victory

Salisbury, Wiltshire

As the drama played out along England’s ‘Red Wall’, most results in areas already dominated by the Conservatives had an air of calm. Little was going to capsize the party in Wiltshire, where the Tories had maintained a secure grip on power since 2009 – when the authority was first created. Although some choppy waters […]

Super Thursday: Historic Green surge moves party neck-and-neck with Labour in Bristol

bristol city

With the key prizes of the West of England Combined Authority and Bristol Mayor positions under their belt, the last victory for Labour to secure was repeating their success in 2016 and reseizing an overall majority of elected members on the council. This hat-trick looked unlikely. Observers at the mayoral count saw clear signs that […]

Super Thursday: Marvin’s magic conjures Labour’s second term in Bristol 

Bristol

As a 1/8 odds-on favourite with national bookmakers, there was unlikely to ever be a ‘how did they do that?’ moment for any of the challengers to Mayor Marvin Rees in 2021. Comfortable Labour majorities in the four Bristol parliamentary constituencies and the absence of former mayor George Ferguson on the ballot paper meant a […]

Super Thursday: Blast from the past storms to victory in Labour win

Ballot Box

Perhaps Labour’s most notable positive result in the UK, former Wansdyke MP Dan Norris makes a surprise return to frontline politics after more than a decade since his parliamentary defeat to Jacob Rees-Mogg in 2010. Given Labour’s woes nationally, this has all the hallmarks of a surprise. But the Tories always had an uphill battle […]

Elections in Wiltshire: more than meets the eye?

Wiltshire

While some elections in the region may be getting more attention than others from political aficionados, plenty is going on with other councils throughout the southwest, Wiltshire being one such authority.   The Conservatives will be confident that they can maintain their hold on the council amid strong opposition locally regarding the county’s scale of […]

The Hartlepool by-election is still Labour’s to lose.

Hartlepool

On Thursday 6th May, voters across England, Scotland and Wales will cast their votes to elect candidates to over 5,000 positions of power according to BBC News. MSPs in Scotland, Members of the Senedd in Wales, 39 Police and Crime Commissioners and 13 directly elected Mayors, together with thousands of new councillors serving on 143 […]

National polling and local results: an in-depth comparison for ‘Super Thursday’ 2021

National issues or local factors? Where the balance lies in influencing how people vote in local elections is widely discussed, but rarely agreed upon. As we reported in our previous ‘Super Thursday’ blogpost, research for this set of local elections by the University of Essex suggests that the pandemic will push local factors into the background.   So, can the Westminster voting intention opinion polls shed any light on possible outcomes […]