By-election Breakdown - Dispatches from Little Moscow
John Johnston & Sam Webber
4 min read
PoliticsHome's by-election breakdown is back in business. Join us every week for our light-hearted look at who's in, who's out, who's lost the plot.
STROUD DC; Berkeley Vale
(4 candidates: Lab, Con, LD & Grn)
2016: Con 1279, 1172, 1050; Lab 951, 672, 646; LD 370, 317, 234; Grn 227
PoliticsHome’s weekly by-election breakdown is back to cover the only contest happening this week - in Stroud’s Berkeley Vale.
The large rural ward contains four main towns and lots of smaller villages in between. The town of Berkeley is home to Berkeley Castle, where King Edward II was brutally murdered in 1327, with - according to legend - the assistance of a red hot poker and a set of stirrups.
This ward falls within the Westminster seat of Stroud, which for the last five general elections back to 2001 has seen a back-and-forth scrap between Neil Carmichael for the Conservatives and the incumbent David Drew for Labour.
Mr Drew first contested this seat in 1992, winning it in 1997, losing it between 2010 and 2017 until he regained it back from Mr Carmichael by a mere 687 votes.
Given the historic Labour-Tory tussle in Stroud and the fact that only 99 votes separated the lowest winning Tory from the highest losing Labour candidate in Berkeley Vale in 2016, this is going to be a close one.
Doing her best to defend the seat for the blue squad is Tory candidate Lindsey Green. The parish councillor, who now runs her own online social media company where she describes herself as an “online networking diva”, has been doing the rounds with newly-selected Stroud Tory candidate Siobhan Baillie, who has tagged in for Neil Carmichael after his 18-year battle for the seat.
The pair have been out doing some classic political candidate activities - including watching a new local lifeboat get launched.
So you won’t be surprised to hear that they’ve had a good response on the doorsteps.
But what might leave a funny taste in mouth of the local Berkeley electorate are some of the funny weight-loss teas and other soothing medicaments that Ms Green used to try and flog to her social media followers.
But lurking under the beds are the reds. And they are throwing the kitchen sink at this contest in a bid to scalp another seat to add to the (big breath) Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green coalition that runs the council.
Labour candidate and former Mayor of Berkeley Liz Ashton has been backed up by some serious heavy-hitters, including a visit from Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry who brought with her an army of red-rosette wearing activists.
And in classic Thorno style, she even took to Twitter to fire a warning shot at the local Tory campaign.
But according to one source on the ground, some Berkeley voters are being put off by a rather unusual address that has cropped up on the ballot paper. Now carpet-bagging has long been a feature of local by-elections, but Ms Ashton may take the biscuit, giving her formal electoral address as: “Little Moscow, Berrycroft”.
PoliticsHome is unsure whether Ms Ashton named the property herself, or just happened upon a fellow Russo-phile during her house search, but safe to say the decision is raising more than a few eyebrows with local voters.
But Ms Ashton will plough on regardless, seeking to bring her former Mayoral experience to boot. Writing on his website, local Labour MP David Drew can’t help but praise her record, keeping the public lavvies open and stopping tractors driving up the High Street.
The Lib Dems and Greens make up this week’s “also rans” with the yellows only managing to cough up a single tweet about the entire contest.
Prediction: CON HOLD
Dasvidaniya comrades - we will be back next week with all the latest from Aylesbury.
A massive credit goes to our fellow council by-election fanatics on the Vote UK Forum where we got our previous vote totals from.
