Yesterday evening me and Sam went back to Thringstone to do some last minute knocking up to get people to the polling stations. We found that most people who were going to vote had already done so but the confirmation is important. After the polls closed we went to the count at Thringstone primary school. This was very interesting as we had never stood in on a count before. As the votes were stacked up it looked like a three horse race between the Conservatives, Labour and the BNP, with the Lib Dems practically no where. But as the bundles were counted it was clear that Labour had retained the seat with the Conservatives finishing a close second and the BNP coming in third place. In the end we lost to Labour by just over 70 votes, not bad when this is Labours safest ward, and turn out was good. I exact figures for the by-election are as follows:
Labour: 593 (634) – 35.9%
Conservative: 520 (501) – 31.4%
BNP: 465 (n/a) – 28.1%
LibDem: 76 (355) – 20.3%
The Labour vote was down by -7.6% and while the largish BNP vote is never a good thing to see it fell well short of their expectations on the night and our own candidate, Tony Dandy, achieved a solid improvement upon the vote from the local elections.
Thank you so much to everyone who came along and pitched in over the course of the last few weeks on what was a professional and focused campaign that ran Labour close in their safest ward in North West Leicestershire.
I found that there was a lot of anti Labour sentiment in Thringstone but the Conservatives and BNP split that vote and Labour just held on in the end. The BNP did not stand last time so took a lot of disillusioned Labour voters. In the end though the result was not bad, running Labour close in its safest ward and defeating the BNP. Congratulations to our candidate Tony Dandy, Ben Surtees the agent and Andrew Bridgen PPC.
Leicester University Conservative Future 
The tory vote was down 0.1% basically where it was after all the extra effort you put in it wasnt great. The BNP vote share was about what we expected although i admit 2nd place would of been better still despite the rubbish thrown at us we continue to build support and members. Sorry we had to expose your 2 cllrs who have been charged since your lot were elected in 2007 but when you start to throw muck expect it back in future. Decent campaign from your lot though
The vote was down 0.1%, don’t make me laugh, that’s so insignificant its surprising you could measure it. In terms of votes we increased the number by 19 which is not a lot but the main thing is we held our votes and did not loose them like the other two main parties did. I for one don’t mind putting in all that hard work as now we know where are supporters are in the ward and who we can target next time. All very important things considering the general election is not that far away.
You say that you continue to build support and members well that’s because you play to peoples fears and mislead them into thinking that you will do something about their concerns. It’s not surprising you increased your support on last time, considering you did not even bother to stand. That’s really standing up for the people isn’t it? The fact is BNP councillors across the country have a dreadful record of council attendance and are extremely ineffective when it comes to working for their constituents. And don’t get me started on councillors with criminal records, ½ the BNP membership have criminal records!