Lib dems celebrate huge vote increase in Wivelsfield

Lib Dems are celebrating a huge swing and moving up to second spot in this week’s by election in Wivelsfield Ward, pushing the Conservatives into third place. The Lib Dems almost trebled their share of the vote  - while both Conservatives and the Green Party saw their vote share fall.  

Fighting a campaign against an incumbent Green Party with local momentum and a historically dominant Conservative Party, the Lib Dems and first- time candidate Nadine Stothard managed to take second place with a massive 18% increase in the vote.

Lib Dem candidate Nadine Stothard said, “Thank you everyone. I am so grateful for those that voted for me and for a fantastic team of activists that were on hand to help execute such a fantastic campaign. It’s been great engaging with so many in our village; we’ve just had such a great response on the doorstep. The Lib Dems will be back next time around and, in the meantime, will keep working hard for our local villages.”

Parliamentary candidate Ben Dempsey said, “This is a great result for us and shows we can beat the Conservatives, who came third on Thursday.  This was a ward which they held until last May. We’ll continue to build support right across East Grinstead & Uckfield constituency over the next few years. Thank you to all who supported the campaign.”

The full result was (2023 results in brackets):
GRN: 42.3% (-10.3)
LIB DEM: 29.0% (+18.2)
CON: 28.6% (-7.9)