Lib Dem candidates lose deposits in both contests as support plummets

THE Liberal Democrats suffered the humiliation of losing their deposit in both by-elections on Thursday night.

Candidates must put forward £500 to stand in an election and get it back if they receive more than 5 per cent of the votes cast.

In both Kingswood and Wellingborough, the Lib Dem share of the vote plummeted from the previous election.

In Kingswood, the Gloucestershire seat vacated by Chris Skidmore, the former climate minister, the party lost almost half of its share of the vote from the 2019 election and was pushed into fifth place.

This will be seen as a sign of tactical voting, where people who want to remove the Tories vote for the party that is most likely to win a seat rather than the one they necessarily support.

However, it will be embarrassing for Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, who has been facing embarrassing questions over the Post Office scandal. He has not yet commented on the two results. In the seat, the Lib Dems came fifth out of six candidates. Candidate Andrew Brown received 861 votes, less than both Reform UK and the Greens.

This amounted to 3.5 per cent of the vote, which was down from 6.9 per cent in the 2019 election. Only one candidate, standing for Ukip, received fewer votes.

In Wellingborough, the Northamptonshire seat vacated by Peter Bone, the former Tory MP, the Lib Dems were pushed into fourth place. Candidate Ana Savage Gunn received 1,422 votes, less than half the number of votes for Reform UK. That was 4.7 per cent of the ‘This is bad news for the Tories – it tells us Lib Dem voters voted tactically’ vote, down from 7.9 per cent since the previous election.

The Lib Dems will argue that the result is no surprise as Labour was clearly second in 2019 in both seats.

It is not the first time the party has lost its deposit in either seat. They won 3.3 per cent of the Wellingborough vote and 3.6 per cent in Kingswood in Theresa May’s snap election of 2017.

Lord Barwell, Mrs May’s former chief of staff, argued that the results demonstrate people’s willingness to vote tactically, rather than a collapse in Lib Dem support. He tweeted: “The Lib Dems were nowhere in either seat beforehand and predictably got squeezed further.

“This is bad news for the Tories – it tells us Lib Dem voters voted tactically; it does not tell us anything about how the Lib Dems will do in seats where they are the main challenger.”