Brompton By-Election shows that Lib Dems are now the main opposition to Tories in Royal Borough

2.52.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Sat 3rd May 2008

Amid the cheering emanating from the Conservatives at the count for the Brompton by-election in Kensington, another group of political activists were doing some celebrating of their own. The Liberal Democrats, who came second, polled almost twice as many votes in the ward as they did in 2006 and kept Labour in a poor third place.

General turn out was up by 60% over 2006 but the number of Liberal Democrat votes cast increased by 88.5%.

The result also echoed the last General Election, in 2005, when the party came in ahead of Labour for the first time across the entire Kensington & Chelsea constituency.

The Lib Dem candidate, Stephen Kingsley, congratulated his Conservative opponent, Quentin Marshall, and went on to say:

"This result in an area which has traditionally been very tough territory for us confirms that, despite clinging on to some Council seats in North Kensington, the days of Labour's claim to be the main opposition party in this Borough are fading fast. We ran an upbeat campaign, offering new thinking, and people responded to that while largely ignoring Labour who seem to have barely visited the area during the contest."

Robin Meltzer, Chair of the Kensington & Chelsea Liberal Democrats added:

"All over the Borough, Kensington & Chelsea voters are returning the same verdict on Labour. Their electoral appeal is vanishing at a rate which must be quite alarming for them. They are now in poor third place in ward after ward of the Borough, while our appeal continues to grow.

"People here are turning to the Liberal Democrats because we offer a policy platform free from dogma and based on the needs of each local community, with an emphasis on environmental sustainability, affordable housing, youth provision and individual liberty."

Robin says the party is now working 'flat out' for the Borough-wide elections in 2010. "Years of cosy relations between the old boys' (and girls') networks in the Conservatives and Labour have led to a democratic deficit in Kensington & Chelsea because Labour simply lack the will to fight against the might of the local Tories.

"We in the Lib Dems are positioned to maximise on this; the stale politics of the past is on its way out of the Royal Borough."