Tories & Lib Dems share spoils in Belsize - Labour win back Camden Council

Here are the results of Thursday’s local elections in the London Borough of Camden's Belsize ward where I was a councillor from May 2006 to May 2010:

Jonny Bucknell, Conservative – 1,969
Claire-Louise Leyland, Conservative – 1,969
Tom Simon, Lib Dem – 1,949
Nigel Rumble, Conservative - 1897
Anne Ward, Lib Dem – 1,746
Paul Perkins, Lib Dem - 1727
Samantha Gunasekera, Labour – 1,094
Sada Deshmukh, Labour – 1,051
Luca Salice, Labour – 1,027

So congratulations to Jonny (who's reportedly cried several times in public because he's so happy I didn't stand again!), Claire-Louise and Tom, and commiserations to the others.

Across Camden there was a Labour surge on the back of the unexpected increased vote for the borough’s two Labour MPs. Labour now have 30 councillors and have regained control of Camden Council, which seems a bit tough when you think that the Audit Commission has rated Camden as the best run council in the country for the last few years.

The Lib Dems and Tories both lost councillors and now have 10 each. And the Greens were reduced to one seat in Highgate. Three seats are still up for grabs - because of the death of Cllr Syed Hoque during the campaign the three Haverstock councillors will be chosen in a by-election on Tue 25th May (which the Lib Dems won making them the official opposition). So it’s all change.

For what it’s worth my analysis is that there was a strange Nick Clegg Rebound Effect going on. The TV debates propelled him into the spotlight and made a lot of people think about voting Lib Dem. But the other two parties ran very effective campaigns warning that a vote for the Lib Dems would mean letting in Labour or the Conservatives.

The turnout was the highest for years and most people voted the same way in the national election as they did in the local poll. The net result was a squeeze on the Lib Dems and the loss of more than half our council seats. Exactly the same thing happened in Islington. However at the national level it meant a hung parliament and Nick Clegg is currently negotiating to be in government. Strange times indeed!