Reading Liberal Democrats

The latest results from the local and European elections.

Nick Clegg visited Bristol to congratulate council leaderBarbara Janke and the local Liberal Democrats European elections results from across the UK.
Fiona Hall has been re-elected as an MEP for North East England.

Andrew Duff has been re-elected as an MEP for the East of England.

Diana Wallis has been re-elected as an MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber.

Sarah Ludford has been re-elected as an MEP for London.

Bill Newton Dunn has been re-elected as an MEP for the East Midlands. (With the number of MEPs in the region reducing by one, this was a gain from UKIP)

Graham Watson has been re-elected as an MEP for the South West of England.

Sharon Bowles has been re-elected as an MEP for the South East of England and is joined by new MEP Catherine Bearder.

Liz Lynne has been re-elected as an MEP for the West Midlands.

Chris Davies has been re-elected as an MEP for the North West of England.

George Lyon has been elected as an MEP for Scotland.

In the local elections, the Liberal Democrats have taken control of Bristol City Council, picking up four seats. Labour fell into third place on the Council, losing eight seats.

We have taken five seats from Labour in the Burnley area of Lancashire County Council, and three seats from the Conservatives and one from Labour on Essex County Council.

Liberal Democrat candidates have defeated the Conservative group leader on Cumbria County Council and the Labour council leader on Nottinghamshire County Council. We cut the majority of the Labour leader on Derbyshire County Council from around 1,000 to 76.

The Liberal Democrats are the largest group on the new unitary Bedford Council and made big gains from Labour in Ashfield.

While Labour and the Conservatives saw their number of seats on Surrey County Council fall, the Liberal Democrats were the only of the main parties to increase their number of seats. We also made net gains – from the Conservatives and Labour – in many other counties, including Cumbria, Dorset, East Sussex, Hertfordshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Sussex and Worcestershire.

The BBC’s projected national vote share is Conservatives 38%, Liberal Democrats 28%, Labour 23% – the Liberal Democrats are the only of the three to increase their projected share from last year’s local elections.

Responding to the early results and the Cabinet reshuffle, Nick Clegg described the government as “finished” and called for a general election. He said, “The Labour government has run out of road, it’s finished. We need something new, different, fresh.”

“This government can no longer govern. It is dysfunctional, it is in meltdown. We need a general election.”

Nick went on to applaud the Liberal Democrats in Bristol, saying that now “the Liberal Democrats run the vast majority of the big cities.”

Editor’s Notes…
Particular congratulations are extended to our local MEPs Sharon Bowles and Catherine Bearder