Wave bye-bye to blue on the City CouncilMATT GUTTERIDGE

The Cambridge Labour Party have strengthened their hold on the Cambridge City Council in a local election cycle which has seen a marked turn to two-party politics in Cambridge. A third of the 42 seats on the City Council were contested, with Labour defending a majority of three seats.

Turnout for Thursday’s elections was 40.1 per cent, markedly higher than 2012, the last time that these seats were contested, where fewer than a third of registered voters cast a ballot.

Labour made gains in Romsey and West Chesterton, where Sophie Barnett and Mike Sargeant displaced Liberal Democrat incumbents. In the former, Barnett toppled veteran councillor Catherine Smart, who has held her seat since 1998. Labour’s victories mean that they now have a majority of five on the city council.

It wasn’t all bad news for the Liberal Democrats though. Danielle Greene was unable to beat Tim Bick in the always hotly-contested Market ward. A predominantly student ward, Bick retained the seat, albeit with a reduced majority of just sixty votes.

Commenting on the success of Labour in the elections, MEP Richard Howitt said he was “thrilled”. However, he expressed disappointment at the failure to reach out to students, suggesting that changes to voter registration had harmed Labour, going as far as to accuse the Conservative Government of “gerrymandering”.

Nonetheless, in the wards with the highest student populations, Labour achieved swings in their favour, most dramatically a 10.7 per cent swing in Castle, although they were unable to wrest the seat from Independent incumbent John Hipkin.

The Liberal Democrats also won in Trumpington, with a huge swing of around 11 per cent from the incumbent Conservative Party, who ended third in the ward.

matt gutteridge and daniel gayne

Both Trumpington and Market demonstrated a trend towards the further domination of council politics by Labour and the Liberal Democrats. Trumpington was the Conservative Party’s only seat on the City Council, and they also suffered losses in formerly contested seats like Queen Edith’s.

Market ward similarly showed a concentration of votes in the hands of Labour and the Liberals. The Greens, whose only councillor, Oscar Gillespie, is in Market ward, saw their vote share marginally reduced, with both Labour and the Liberal Democrats increasing their share of the vote.

In Abbey too, where the Greens once challenged the Labour Party’s dominance, their vote share was reduced from 23.9 per cent to 14.5 per cent, with the Labour incumbent, Richard Johnson, winning with an increased majority of 943.

Early indications suggest Labour’s success in Cambridge has not been mirrored across the country. Though the extent of the damage remains unclear, it looks likely that Labour will underperform compared to local elections under Ed Miliband in 2012, despite a percentage improvement on the general election.

The battlegroundmatt gutteridge

Daniel Zeichner, Cambridge’s Labour MP emphasised to Varsity that “Jeremy Corbyn’s election was a big change” that would take some time to settle. But in Scotland particularly, it seems to have been a dire night for Jeremy Corbyn’s party, with present predictions putting them in third place.

The full results in Scotland, England and Wales, as well as those of the London mayoral and assembly elections still remain to be seen. Back in Cambridge, voters also headed to the polls yesterday for the Police and Crime Commissioner elections, the results of which will be announced later today.