Lib Dems Enjoy Strong Result Across Kensington & Chelsea

5.21.51pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 5th May 2006

The final results of the Borough Elections on 4th May saw the Conservatives keeping control of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea council and the Liberal Democrats pushing Labour into third or fourth place in the following wards: Abingdon, Campden, Colville Courtfield, Earls Court, Holland, Pembridge, Queens Gate, Redcliffe, Royal Hospital and Stanley.

In Colville, the Portobello Liberal Democrats - publishers of the FOCUS newsletter - secured an increase of almost 50% in number of votes and gave the sitting Labour councillors a shock. Labour's votes stayed almost static in Colville - increasing by only five votes! Lib Dem Carol Caruana came just 114 votes (or 2.5% of the vote) short of unseating the sitting Labour councillor, Keith Cunningham. Of all those who voted in Colville, over 57% did not vote for the Labour party. Labour's share of the vote dropped by 10 percentage points in Colville, while the Lib Dems increased by over 5%.

Meanwhile, in Pembridge, Labour finished behind the Greens in a poor fourth place while the Lib Dems came second.

It was also a bad night for Labour in Notting Barns, where the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats mounted a strong challenge to see the weakest Labour candidate come within 74 votes of losing their seat to a Tory.

The candidates for the Kensington & Chelsea Lib Dems have expressed their gratitude to everyone who gave the Lib Dems 12,304 votes in total across the Borough.