It’s been just over four months since the last round of local elections in England, so it’s probably time to have a quick look at the list of defections, expulsions, ratting and re-ratting going on amongst our elected councillors.
My thesis is a simple one: local government by elections tell us a lot about real votes cast by real voters, and are the subject of considerable (over?) analysis. However, councillors changing their Political allegiances might be able to tell us a lot more about morale and local realpolitik, which can have a significant effect on local campaigning.
Councillors provide the bulk of canvassing, leafletting and polling day manpower at General Elections, as well as being the political antennae for parliamentary candidates. If they leave - for reasons of political principle, ego, or perceived personal slights they might have suffered - then as a consequence their old Political Party will lose their campaigning abilities in their ward.
Since May this year it’s been comparatively quiet – there has been a net loss of 28 Conservative councillors, including three from the group in Peterborough. Fifteen have left the Labour Party, including at least two arising from the Jamie Driscoll affair in North Tyneside.
The Lib Dems are down nine (thirteen left, four joined) with three having gone in Sunderland, citing the pressures put on them by the local party.
The Scottish Nationalists have lost 10, almost all in North Lanarkshire. So, 61 active politicians have, for one reason or another, left the political party they were members of when they were elected.
Only six have moved directly from one political party to another – the rest have moved to some form of notional independence. Let’s see if the Defection Rate increases the closer we get to a General Election.
Augustus Carp is the pen name of someone who has been a member of the Liberal Party and then the Liberal Democrats since 1976.
Read Augustus Carp's earlier guest posts on councillors who change allegiance:
- 100 signs that Conservative morale is low
- Defections, ratting and re-ratting: a final scorecard
