LB Croydon - Bensham Manor By-Election result

In the Bensham Manor By-Election in LB Croydon last night, Labour retained the seat of Bensham Manor with a 10% swing in its favour. Given the appalling weather along with the challenging circumstances at a national level, this was a superb result. Having helped a few times in the by-election(the ward is very near my own ward of Pollards Hill in Merton) I know the Croydon Labour party put a huge amount of time and effort into winning this by-election.

In the election, the Conservatives had put considerable effort into winning with dozens of activists flooding the ward along with a deluge of publicity distributed in the ward. The Conservatives clearly saw a good performance in this ward as key to their ability of being able to break through in urban areas and the fact they performed so poorly does not bode well for them in terms of advancing in many urban areas.

If this result was repeated in a Council election, Labour would return to power in Croydon. With Croydon also being a Conservative council, the voters of Bensham Manor clearly do not have much faith in the incumbent Conservative council that has been in power under a year.

I would also like too congratulate Alison Butler on being re-elected to Croydon Council having lost her seat in Waddon last year.

The result is below.

Croydon LBC, Bensham Manor
Lab 1683 (61.6;+13.6), Con 617 (22.6;-6.4), Green 240 (8.8;-6.3), Lib Dem 126 (4.6;+4.6), UKIP 40 (1.5;-6.4), MRLP 15 (0.5;+0.5), P.Ch. 9 (0.3;+0.3)
Majority 1066. Turnout 26.2%. Lab hold. Last fought 2006.