Ok, so we didn’t win this one, and we were on such a high over the Richmond result, maybe some of us believed we could.

But let’s look at the facts: Sleaford is nothing like Richmond. In 2015 we finished a poor 4th there – we were never going to win, especially as it came so hot on the heels of Richmond where the Party’s focus has been over the past few weeks.

However, after feeling disappointed that we finished behind UKIP in this seat, I looked at the detail of the results and am greatly encouraged.

The Tory vote fell by 2.7%. The Labour vote fell by a staggering 7.3% to see them finish behind us in 4th. And even the UKIP vote fell by 2.2%. UKIP remember did not contest Richmond; they were able to concentrate all their resources on this by-election, and yet their vote went down! The recent election of their new leader was headline news – so much for there being some sort of honeymoon effect! If Richmond was all about kicking the establishment – what I heard a Labour supporter tell me – then either UKIP (who came a close 3rd last time) or Labour (who came 2nd last time) should have swept to victory here.

This result proves that Richmond was NOT about kicking the establishment; that’s a nice story for the press to spin, but its just not true! Richmond was about a genuine upturn in Liberal Democrat popularity, and this was evident in the Sleaford result too; we were the only one of the four main parties to increase our vote – up by 4.3%. No, its not an earth-shattering up-turn of Richmond proportions – to be realistic, much of England is still wedded to conservatism – but it shows a continuation of a very positive trend. Liberal Democrats have still a lot to be happy about this week.

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