Numbers behind election headlines
THE Conservative Party gained control of 13 extra councils across England in Thursday’s local elections, including Cornwall, and added 235 councillors, a 10% gain – but while they kept control of Devon County Council, and added 10,000 votes to their 2017 tally, their vote share fell and they ended up with a reduced majority.
Gains were made in Newton Abbot North and Seaton and Colyton (from Lib Dems and East Devon Alliance), while they took back the Bideford West and Hartland seat.
However, they lost one of the two seats in Broadclyst, Barnstaple South, Dawlish, Teignmouth and South Brent and Yealmpton – one to the Greens, and four to the Lib Dems, to end the day down on where they began.
Vote share was up in 18 wards where they won, but down in 20 where they held onto seats. Vote share was up in six seats they didn’t win, and vote share was down in 14 seats where they lost.
So while winning a fourth successive term, and with a comfortable, albeit reduced majority, not everything was as positive as it might have been.
The Liberal Democrats were pleased with the headline figure from the results – winning nine seats, a gain of three on where they started, including winning back Dawlish and Teignmouth which they lost to the Conservatives in 2017 with popular local candidates.
They also took both Barnstaple seats – one a gain from the Conservatives – as well as taking South Brent and Yealmpton from the Tories, but saw their votes in Newton Abbot collapse, losing both seats.
Overall, their vote share was down 4% on 2017, and they got 6,000 fewer votes in 2021 than the 2017 election.
For the Lib Dems, vote share increased in six of the seats they won, and in 11 seats they didn’t win. But in three seats they held, vote share fell, and vote share was down in 32 seats that they didn’t win.
On a difficult day for Labour nationally, where they lost 326 councillors and control of eight councils including Plymouth, the Labour vote in Devon held up, including an increased majority on Exeter City Council, and they ended the day with one extra councillor on Devon County Council – winning a seat that they had won before the member became an Independent.
Labour’s vote share was up 0.7% on the 2017 elections, and in more than half of the wards they gained a higher percentage of the vote than they did last time out. But outside of Exeter, Labour only came second in three seats, and saw their vote share fall in 17 of the seats that they didn’t win.
The elections proved successful for the Greens. They doubled their vote share from 5.5% to 11% and gained vote share in 41 of the 42 equivalent wards – only Northam seeing vote share fall. Henry Gent won in Broadclyst, in addition to Jacqi Hodgson convincingly retaining her Totnes and Dartington seat.
The composition of Devon County Council now consists of 39 Conservatives, nine Liberal Democrats, seven from Labour, three Independents and two Greens.