Results of the Local Elections held on May 4th, 2023
Conservatives keep control of Basildon Council!
It was a nail-biting finish in places but last night saw the Conservative Party retain control of Basildon Council. As you can see from the above graphic, Basildon Conservatives kept control of the Council, having won all five of the seats we were defending and gained a seat from the Wickford Independents in Wickford Park. This means that we now have 26 seats, which gives us a comfortable overall majority.
All told, however, Basildon Conservatives secured 39% of the popular vote across the Borough, which is 10 points down on last year. Labour broke even at 10 seats (29% of the vote). The Smithite Independents held their seat in Nethermayne, leaving them on 5 seats in total (8%). Having lost Wickford Park, Eunice Brockman retained her Wickford North seat, making her the sole remaining Windy on the Council. The Liberal Democrats won no seats but increased their vote share from 11% to 13%. The Greens contested four seats this year, having contested none last year, but failed to make any impact, commanding just 2% of the vote.
The detailed breakdown of results is as follows:
BILLERICAY EAST – Con HOLD
DADDS, David (Con) – 1,703 (60%) *Elected
CLARK, Laura (Lib) – 592 (21%)
BUNYAN, Peter (Lab) – 525 (19%)
Turnout: 30% (-3)
M'learned ward colleague, David Dadds, was re-elected by the good burghers of Billericay East with a majority of 1,111. This is, however, 7 points down on my result last year and more than 300 votes less than my majority (not that I'm counting, he said smugly). The Liberal's vote share was up slightly by 1% but it is a far cry from the 9-point swing they enjoyed last time. Once again, Laura Clark was notable for putting out her first and only election-related Facebook post on Polling Day and it was a picture of her out campaigning in the neighbouring ward of Billericay West for her colleague, Chris May. Labour's share was up 6 points on last year but still trailing behind the Liberals in third place.
BILLERICAY WEST – Con HOLD
LAWRENCE, Daniel (Con) – 1,523 (51%) *Elected
MAY, Chris (Lib) – 1,062 (36%)
PALMER, Gillian (Lab) – 208 (7%)
BRENNAN, Andrew (Grn) - 168 (6%)
Turnout: 32% (-6)
Conservative Danny Lawrence was returned with a majority of 461. This was, once again, a close race by Billericay standards. Danny's share of the vote was down 6 points on what our colleague Tony Hedley achieved last year. In 2022, Tony was a beneficiary of the departure of Lib Dem town councillor Edward Sainsbury, who moved away. He was replaced in West as the Liberal candidate by a new candidate, who lived in Basildon. Chris May is also a local town councillor, so has put in a respectable showing but, actually, his vote share was 2 points down on last year. Nonetheless, we are still a far cry from the 2k+ majorities we used to enjoy pre-2019 but it was a relief to see Danny returned and will have been a disappointment to the Liberals, who have been pressing us pretty hard in West the past few years. Meanwhile, Labour's result was largely unchanged from last year and the Green candidate failed to make any impact at all.
BURSTEAD – Con HOLD
BLAKE, Kevin (Con) – 1,574 (61%) *Elected
DAFFIN, Chris (Lib) – 533 (21%)
REID, Malcolm (Lab) – 318 (12%)
GOSHAWK, Stuart (Grn) - 166 (6%)
Turnout: 30% (-4)
Deputy Conservative Leader Kevin Blake was re-elected in Burstead, albeit with a relatively modest majority of 1,041 and a 5-point swing away from the Tories. Once again, the Liberals put in a respectable showing but their share of the vote was actually also down by 2 points, both parties seeming to have lost some of their vote to the Greens. Labour, meanwhile, retained third place but with little improvement in their overall performance.
FRYERNS – Lab HOLD
DAVIES, Allan (Lab) – 1,165 (64%) *Elected
SANDHU, Sandeep (Con) – 505 (28%)
HOWARD, Vivien (Lib) – 161 (9%)
Turnout: 17% (-2)
Labour's Allan Davies was very comfortably returned in his safe Labour seat with a majority of 660. Alas, our valiant candidate, Sandeep Sandhu, saw a 5-point drop in his vote share and the Liberals were, once again, a very distant third. To be fair, as I said in my 'Runners & Riders' blog, Allan is a pretty good egg and easily the hardest working of Labour's three Fryerns councillors (neither of the other two even appeared to be at the count) and has represented the seat for 16 years, so has some personal following in the ward.
LAINDON PARK – Lab HOLD
JOSEPH, Victoria (Lab) – 754 (35%) *Elected
ALLEN, Christopher (Con) – 729 (34%)
ARNOLD, Tina (Ind) - 307 (14%)
McCARTHY, Stephen (Lib) – 101 (5%)
McCARTHY, Oliver (Grn) - 93 (4%)
BATEMAN, Christopher (BDem) – 89 (4%)
RACKLEY, Phil (B'thru) - 55 (3%)
Turnout: 21% (-1)
In what was, for me personally, easily the most frustrating result of the night, hardworking former Conservative councillor Chris Allen narrowly failed to take the third Laindon Park seat for the Tories. Victoria Joseph successfully held the seat for Labour, following the retirement of John Scarola, by just 25 votes, in what was a nail-bitingly close late night result! Once again, it was the poxy 'Independent' candidate who let Labour take the seat. Spare a thought for poor old Chris, who failed to win Laindon Park four years ago under almost identical circumstances. Then, as now, an embittered ex-Tory has stood against us and handed the seat to a socialist. Having won the seat in 2021 and 2022, both times with over half the popular vote, it is maddening beyond belief to have been denied the third seat. Labour's share of the vote here was exactly the same as last year, so this was not a Labour victory in any meaningful sense. The Liberals and the Brit Dem's votes were all down. The Green and Phil Rackley put in a nominal showing. This was the Labour-supporting Kerry Smith-backed candidate posing as an 'Independent', handing them the seat. On a point of interest, I met Steve and Oliver McCarthy at the count and confirmed they are, indeed, father and son. Steve was upbeat about his prospects, even though he knew he was down at least two votes (his wife, understandably, was voting for their son).
LEE CHAPEL NORTH – Lab HOLD
WEBB, Terry (Lab) – 954 (60%) *Elected
MORDECAI, Martyn (Con) – 468 (29%)
CHANDLER, Mike (Lib) – 180 (11%)
Turnout: 16% (-2)
Labour's Terry Webb was re-elected with few surprises in this very safe seat, with a majority of 486. Labour's vote share is up 4 points on last year, whereas our candidate, Martyn Mordecai, saw the Tory share of the vote slump by 7 points. There was no Liberal here last year but Mike Chandler made little impact.
LAINDON PARK & FRYERNS (County Division) – Lab HOLD
REID, Patricia (Lab) – 2,748 (50%) *Elected
SARGENT, Terri (Con) – 1,890 (34%)
McCARTHY, Oliver (Grn) - 445 (8%)
CHANDLER, Mike (Lib) – 444 (8%)
Turnout: 18% (-0)
Pat Reid held the Laindon Park & Fryerns County Division for Labour, despite being a Pitsea borough councillor and despite the by-election being occasioned by the resignation of her Labour predecessor due to poor attendance and lack of casework. Councillor Reid enjoys a majority of 858. To be fair to Pat, she was previously a county councillor for the Pitsea Division and has a reputation as a hard-worker but, nonetheless, it was a somewhat dispiriting result given that my colleague, Cllr. Jeff Henry, topped the poll in Laindon Park & Fryerns at the county elections in 2021 and has essentially been the lone county councillor there for the past two years. But, the fact that Labour convincingly won all three borough seats in the division made this result a bit of a foregone conclusion. Terri Sargent, a former county councillor for the division, came a distant second, while the Green and Liberal were an essentially negligible factor.
NETHERMAYNE – Ind HOLD
LARKIN, Mo (Ind) – 1,560 (66%) *Elected
CAIRA-NEESON, Calum (Lab) – 450 (19%)
EDEMAKHIOTA, Stanley (Con) – 226 (10%)
NICE, Stephen (Lib) – 116 (5%)
Turnout: 22% (-5)
Mo Larkin of the Smithite fake Independents was, very tediously, comfortably re-elected to her Nethermayne seat, with an almost fantastical majority of 1,110 - almost the largest majority of the night and easily the largest vote share. Calum Caira-Neeson enjoyed a modest 5-point swing to Labour but, sadly, our candidate, Stanley Edemakhiota, remained stubbornly mired in third place, actually 2 points down on last time. Poor old Steve Nice for the Liberals continues to be a mere spectator at these elections. Nethermayne remains entirely sewn up by the cult of Kerry Smith. The mainstream parties cannot lay a glove on him.
PITSEA NORTH-WEST – Lab HOLD
REID, Patricia (Lab) – 872 (49%) *Elected
COTTRELL, Mark (Con) – 675 (38%)
HOWARD, Martin (Lib) – 121 (7%)
SERINA, Rainbow (Grn) - 99 (6%)
Turnout: 19% (-2)
Disappointingly, having gained the seat from Labour last year (unseating the then Labour leader no less), Pat Reid was comfortably re-elected here with a majority of 197. As I have said elsewhere on this blog, this is somewhat understandable, as by common consensus, Councillor Reid is very hardworking and well-liked and respected on all sides. Nonetheless, Mark Cottrell put in a very respectable showing. Veteran Liberal candidate Martin Howard's result was more or less identical to last year's, while the new Green candidate, Rainbow Serina (whom I have learned is also the borough's first ever transgender candidate), put in a largely nominal showing, securing less than a hundred votes.
PITSEA SOUTH-EAST – Con HOLD
RIMMER, Craig (Con) – 915 (41%) *Elected
WRIGHT, Matthew (Lab) – 896 (40%)
COJOCARU, Iurie (Ind) - 335 (15%)
LANCASTER, Peter (Lib) - 90 (4%)
Turnout: 25% (-0)
In what turned out to be a tantilisingly close photo-finish, following several re-counts, my colleague Craig Rimmer was narrowly re-elected with a wafer-thin majority of just 19 votes. This will have been a very disappointing result for the Labour Group, who chucked everything but the kitchen sink at trying to unseat Craig, including bussing huge teams from the GMB trade union into the ward. In what was almost a mirror of the Laindon Park result, the Kerry Smith-backed 'Labour-Dependent', Iurie Cojocaru, nearly took enough votes off us to let the Labour candidate in. Fortunately, thanks to Craig's massive personal vote in the ward, he managed to cling on and deny Labour the seat. This was the only seat where Labour can have realistically hoped to make any gains, so it was a major defeat for them. The Liberal made no impact here at all.
ST. MARTIN'S – Lab HOLD
YAQUB, Maryam (Lab) – 628 (52%) *Elected
SHUKLA, Deepak (Con) – 322 (26%)
JENKINS, Phil (Lib) - 149 (12%)
BUXTON, Andrew (TUSC) - 119 (10%)
Turnout: 17% (-8)
The Labour Leader of the Opposition, Maryam Yaqub, was comfortably re-elected in her traditionally safe Labour seat with a majority of 306. This will doubtless have come as a relief to Councillor Yaqub, who attended the Count with her newborn baby, as St. Martin's was not contested last year but, in 2021, the Tories won it for the first time in history, defeating the then Labour Mayor to boot. Sadly, it seems in the intervening years, St. Martin's has reverted to type and become relatively safe for Labour again, with a massive 14-point swing back away from the Tories since 2021. The Liberals have also enjoyed a modest revival of fortunes here, with Phil Jenkins' vote up 7 points. The presence of Councillor Yaqub's immediate predecessor as Labour councillor for St. Martin's, Andrew Buxton, standing as a Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition candidate, seems to have made no impact.
VANGE – Lab HOLD
McGEORGE, Melissa (Lab) – 630 (53%) *Elected
SMITH, Lewis (Con) – 436 (36%)
SMITH, Peter (Lib) - 68 (6%)
MURRAY, Dave (TUSC) - 65 (5%)
Turnout: 17% (-7)
Deputy Labour Leader, Melissa McGeorge, was comfortably re-elected with a majority of 194. As in St. Martin's, this seat was not contested last year and the Labour vote share is up 14 points since it was last contested in 2021, when we took the seat from Labour's Aidan McGurran. Meanwhile, our share of the vote is down 9 points over the same period. The Liberal's vote share has doubled, to 6%, but both he and the Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition candidate were not even really in this race.
WICKFORD CASTLEDON – Con HOLD
MORRIS, Don (Con) – 668 (38%) *Elected
HARRISON, David (W/Ind) – 442 (25%)
MOTT, Stewart (Lib) – 390 (22%)
ROTHERY, Francesca (Lab) – 266 (15%)
Turnout: 31% (-0)
Don Morris, the 'Duke of Wickford' himself, has been re-elected with a majority of 226 over Windy Leader, David Harrison (who was not present at the Count). This brings to an end David Harrison's cumulative total of 23 years as a Basildon councillor. As I said in my 'Runners & Riders' blog, Mr. Harrison was the last of the original 1973 intake of councillors when the old District Council was first formed from the Basildon Urban District Council (on which I believe he also served). Don, meanwhile, is now approaching 30 years of service but his share of the vote was down 14 points on last year. Lib Dem town councillor Stewart Mott seemed pretty pleased with himself for a guy who came in third but with some cause, as his share of the vote was up a massive 19 points. Labour's vote share, meanwhile, was down 8 points and first-time candidate Francesca Rothery trailed in last place.
WICKFORD NORTH – W/Ind HOLD
BROCKMAN, Eunice (W/Ind) – 1,180 (45%) *Elected
METCALFE, Mike (Con) – 754 (29%)
WOOD, James (Lab) – 389 (15%)
HOAD, Nicola (Lib) – 162 (6%)
COLLINS, Dave (RUK) - 120 (5%)
Turnout: 25% (-5)
The last of the 'Windies', Eunice Brockman, was comfortably re-elected with a majority of 426. The Tory vote in Wickford North has plummeted 13 points since Peter Holliman won re-election last year. This could all be down to Councillor Brockman's above average online profile but doubtless there will need to be some soul-searching amongst Wickford colleagues to determine what went wrong here. The Labour vote hardly budged and the Liberal and Reform UK candidates made no impact.
WICKFORD PARK – Con GAIN from W/Ind
CHILD, Yvonne (Con) – 613 (39%) *Elected
HAMMOND, Trevor (W/Ind) – 597 (38%)
WRIGHT, Dylan (Lab) - 287 (18%)
BLAKE, Simon (Lib) - 83 (5%)
Turnout: 22% (-3)
In an early result, in what turned out to be the only seat on the entire council that actually changed hands in this election, Yvonne Child gained this seat from the Windies, following David Harrison's decision to retire and stand in Wickford Castledon, presumably as a largely 'paper candidate'. Yvonne's majority is but a slender 16 votes though! Again, some soul-searching will be needed among Wickford Conservatives, as our vote was down 9 points here since George Jeffery was re-elected last year. The Labour vote has remained largely static. The Liberals did not contest Wickford Park last year and they needn't have bothered this year.
CONCLUSION:
As so often, a night of highs and lows. Brilliant to gain Wickford Park but the result in Wickford North is particularly troubling. Deeply, deeply frustrating not to pick up Laindon Park and get Chris Allen back on the Council. But then a bloodbath had been predicted in some quarters, particularly given the polling nationally, but although some colleagues were retained only by the skin of their teeth, we did retain all the seats we were defending, most notably Pitsea South-East, where my Cabinet colleague, Craig Rimmer, was assailed by a relentless Labour effort to unseat him. It was, of course, hugely gratifying to see my colleagues returned and to have retained the Administration of Basildon Council. We look forward to welcoming Cllr. Yvonne Child (Con, Wickford Park) into the Conservative Group. Overall, I will call ending the night one-up a pretty good result and bank the win. It is a vote of confidence from Basildon residents, which bucks the national trend.
This will have been a disappointing night for Labour, I would think (though they seemed inordinately pleased with themselves at the Count). I suppose they did not lose any seats, which is one thing, but they did not gain any either, which is not much good for an opposition party when the Tories have been in power locally for two years and nationally for 13 years and there is plenty to attack us on. Their big electoral breakthrough remains as elusive as ever.
Turnout across the Borough continues to be depressingly low, at 22% (5 points down on last year). The highest turnout was in Billericay West at 32%, while the lowest was Lee Chapel North at just 16%.
Just enough time for some pointless stat-crunching! The single highest number of votes won by any borough candidate was my ward colleague, David Dadds (Con, Billericay East), who received 1,703 votes. The lowest was Phil Rackley for the Breakthrough Party in Laindon Park at just 55 votes. He, not unsurprisingly, also has the lowest vote share (3%). The largest share of the vote went to Mo Larkin (Ind, Nethermayne), who commanded 66% of the popular vote. The single largest majority (1,111) was won by m'colleague David Dadds. The honour of the smallest majority goes to the newly minted Councillor Child (Con, Wickford Park) at just 16 votes.
The Conservative Group will now hold its AGM and put together an Order Paper, including our nominees for Leader of the Council and Mayor of the Borough, to present to the Annual Meeting of Basildon Council scheduled for May 25th.
We are, as always, hugely grateful to everyone who voted for us.
