Thatcham By-Elections Surge to Lib-Dems

1.14.59pm UTC (GMT +0000) Sat 12th Jan 2008

Big swings to the Liberal Democrats in yesterday's two Thatcham Town Council by-elections show that the initiative in the battle for the Newbury constituency is now slipping away from the Conservatives.

The by-elections covered an area of Central and North Thatcham which contains approximately one eighth of the Newbury constituency electorate.

By-elections in the same two wards also took place in May 2005, the same month as the last General Election. The results yesterday showed swings in favour of the Liberal Democrats of 14% (Thatcham Central) and 20% (Thatcham North) as compared to the results at the time of the General Election. The swings since the full Town Council election in May 2007 were 5% (North) and 10% (Central).

"Momentum is a key political asset", commented David Rendel, Newbury's Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesperson, "and the momentum in Newbury constituency is now clearly with the Liberal Democrats. We had three excellent candidates in Stephanie Steevenson, Jason Leake and Annie Sparkes, and I congratulate them all on their well-deserved success."