2019 Portsmouth City Council election

2019 Portsmouth City Council election
15 of the 42 seats to Portsmouth City Council; 22 seats needed for a majority
Council control before election; No Overall Control;	Council control after election ; No Overall Control;

Elections to Portsmouth City Council took place on Thursday 2 May 2019, alongside other local elections across the country. The seats contested in this election were last contested in 2015. The Conservative Party had 8 seats they were defending, the Liberal Democrats 5 and Labour 1 seat. A by-election occurred within the vacant Cosham seat from last years election, due to the sitting Conservative standing down. No party gained a majority from this election, and therefore the council remains under no overall control.

Following the election, the Liberal Democrat minority administration that was formed in 2018 continued in office.^[2] Labour abstained on the vote for the council leader, with the Liberal Democrats winning the vote by virtue of being the single largest party.

Background

Elections to Portsmouth council since 2012 have proven to have volatile and changing results, with eleven of the city's fourteen wards voting for different parties each year.^[3] Following the 2018 election in Portsmouth, in which one third of the council was elected, the UK Independence Party lost all of their seats. Gerald Vernon-Jackson became leader of the council.^[4]

A Conservative councillor for Cosham who was elected, James Fleming, was forced to resign as he was not attending meetings due to long term sickness. This means that the Cosham ward will have two seats up for election.^[5] The Conservatives also faced an internal inquiry during this campaign due to one of their former candidates claiming he was racially abused.^[6]

Election results

Immediately ahead of this election, the composition of the council was:

↓
17	5	17	2	1
Liberal Democrats	Labour	Conservative	I	V

After the election result, the composition of the council became:

↓
18	6	16	2
Liberal Democrats	Labour	Conservative	I

As the council is elected in thirds, one councillor for each of the 14 wards are elected each year. All comparisons in seats and swing are to the corresponding 2015 election.

2019 Portsmouth City Council election
Party		This election			Full council			This election
Party		Seats	Net	Seats %	Other	Total	Total %	Votes	Votes %	+/−
	Liberal Democrats	6	2	40.0	12	18	42.9	13,969	29.2
	Conservative	7	3	46.7	9	16	38.1	11,966	24.9
	Labour	2	1	13.3	4	6	14.3	11,966	25.1
	Independent	0		0.0	2	2	4.8	0	0.0
	UKIP	0		0.0	0	0	0.0	6,664	14.0
	Green	0		0.0	0	0	0.0	2,752	5.8
	NHA	0		0.0	0	0	0.0	344	0.7
	VPP	0		0.0	0	0	0.0	117	0.2
	JAC	0		0.0	0	0	0.0	75	0.2

Results by ward

Comparisons for the purpose of determining a gain, hold or loss of a seat, and for all percentage changes, is to the last time these specific seats were up for election in 2015. An asterisk indicates the incumbent councillor.

Baffins

Baffins^[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Lynne Stagg*	1,649	45	+15
	Conservative	Ryan Brent	776	21	−7
	UKIP	Todd Sweeney	547	15	−7
	Labour	Kasey Clark	470	13	−2
	Green	Bob Simmonds	240	7	+2
Majority			873	24	+22
Turnout			3,682	33.1	−30.8
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Central Southsea

Central Southsea
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Suzy Horton*	1,760	46	+15
	Labour	Charlotte Gerada	1,235	32	+16
	Conservative	Ruben Bell	328	9	−13
	Green	Eloise Shavelar	268	7	−14
	UKIP	Michael Nawrot	263	7	−2
Majority			525	14	+5
Turnout			3,854	35.0
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Cal Corkery	1,023	40	+14
	Liberal Democrats	Mark Graham	619	24	−1
	UKIP	Matthew Harvey	504	20	−2
	Conservative	Ronnie Taffurelli-Hutchings	254	10	−8
	Green	Sarah Gilbert	168	7	±0
Majority			404	16	+7
Turnout			2,568	21.5	−24.3
	Labour hold		Swing	14

Copnor

Copnor
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Robert New*	1,064	37	−5
	Labour	Rumal Khan	658	23	+1
	UKIP	Bill Haley	541	19	−4
	Liberal Democrats	Ross Campbell	365	13	+6
	Green	Ken Hawkins	286	10	+5
Majority			406	14	+5
Turnout			2,914	29.8
	Conservative hold		Swing

Cosham

Cosham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Lee Mason*	1,082	34
	Conservative	Matthew Atkins	1,071	34
	UKIP	George Madgwick	899	29
	Labour	David Boxall	756	24
	Labour	Yahiya Chowdhury	627	20
	Liberal Democrats	Simon Sansbury	427	14
	Liberal Democrats	Helena Cole	383	12
	NHA	Veronika Wagner	344	11
Turnout			3,153	31.0
	Conservative hold		Swing
	Conservative hold		Swing

Drayton & Farlington

Drayton & Farlington
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Terry Norton	1,927	55	−11
	Labour	Rebecca Light	729	21	+3
	UKIP	Derek Jennings	471	13	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	Delwar Baig	402	11	+6
Majority			1,198	34	−14
Turnout			3,529	30.1
	Conservative hold		Swing

Eastney and Craneswater

Eastney and Craneswater
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Linda Symes	1,406	34.9	−5.1
	Liberal Democrats	Jennie Brent*^[8]	1,003	24.9	+1.9
	Labour	Luke Evans	910	22.6	+10.6
	UKIP	Andrew Walters	365	9.1	−4.9
	Green	Menno Groen	282	7.0	+3.0
	JAC	Steve Oldfield	53	1.3
Majority			403	10.0	−4.3
Turnout			4,019	41.9	−22.3
	Conservative hold		Swing

Fratton

Fratton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Dave Ashmore*	1,141	39	+13
	Labour	Trevor Morgan	844	29	+9
	UKIP	Kevan Chippindall-Higgin	395	13	−8
	Green	Tim Sheerman-Chase	289	10	+3
	Conservative	Elliot Russell	288	10	−12
Majority			297	10	+5
Turnout			2,957	28
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Hilsea

Hilsea
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Scott Harris*	1,058	39	−6
	Labour	Sue Castillon	627	22	−2
	UKIP	Mark Roberts	518	18	−2
	Liberal Democrats	Peter Williams	380	13	+6
	Green	Emma Murphy	274	10	+5
Majority			431	17	−2
Turnout			2,857
	Conservative hold		Swing

Milton

Milton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Gerald Vernon-Jackson*	1,611	41	+7
	Labour	Paula Savage	1,036	26	+12
	UKIP	Jenny Dobson	543	14	−1
	Conservative	Stephen Gorys	457	12	−13
	Green	Tamara Groen	276	7	−4
Majority			575	15	+6
Turnout			3,923
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Nelson

Nelson
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Lee Hunt	1,125	43	+21
	Labour	Mo Quinn	472	18	−5
	UKIP	Mike Jerome	456	18	−6
	Conservative	Lewis Gosling	374	14	−11
	Green	Duncan Robinson	176	7	+3
Majority			653	25
Turnout			2,603
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing

Paulsgrove

Paulsgrove
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Gemma New*	966	37	+4
	Labour	Isabelle Sene	669	26	−6
	UKIP	Stuart Potter	647	25	−1
	Liberal Democrats	Iain Sutherland	209	8	+3
	Green	Robert Wilson	117	4	±0
Majority			297	11	+10
Turnout			2,608
	Conservative hold		Swing

St Jude

St Jude
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Graham Heaney	1,061	33	+18
	Liberal Democrats	Tracy McClure	851	26	−1
	Conservative	Timothy Forer	766	24	−10
	Green	Darren Fry	310	10	−2
	UKIP	Ian Ducane	245	8	−2
	The Justice & Anti-Corruption Party	Claudiu-Bogdan Babii	22	1	N/A
Majority			210	7	−1
Turnout			3,255
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	14

St Thomas

St Thomas
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Chris Attwell	1,366	40	+13
	Labour	Sumel Chowdhury	849	25	+9
	Conservative	Terry Henderson	747	22	−10
	UKIP	Colin Galloway	270	8	−4
	Green	Rebecca Kingsley-Smith	183	5	−7
Majority			517	15	+10
Turnout			3,415
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing

References

^ Alongside the third of the council's 14 seats which are being contested, a by-election is taking place in Cosham for a Conservative standing down.
^ "Liberal Democrats retain Portsmouth council leadership". BBC News. 14 May 2019. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
^ Andrew Teale (28 April 2019). "Long Read: The 2019 Local Elections". Britain Elects. Archived from the original on 30 April 2019. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
^ "Lib Dem Gerald Vernon-Jackson wins Portsmouth council leadership". BBC News. 15 May 2018. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
^ Ben Fishwick (26 March 2019). "Cosham councillor removed from Portsmouth council for not attending meetings". The News (Portsmouth). JPIMedia. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
^ Rajeev Syal (26 April 2019). "Tories and Labour accused of racial discrimination in Portsmouth". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
^ "Election results for Baffins". Portsmouth.gov.uk. 3 May 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
^ "Councillor Jennie Brent Joins Liberal Democrats".

[1] Alongside the third of the council's 14 seats which are being contested, a by-election is taking place in Cosham for a Conservative standing down.

[2] "Liberal Democrats retain Portsmouth council leadership". BBC News. 14 May 2019. Retrieved 11 March 2021.

[BE-longreadpreview-3] Andrew Teale (28 April 2019). "Long Read: The 2019 Local Elections". Britain Elects. Archived from the original on 30 April 2019. Retrieved 30 April 2019.

[4] "Lib Dem Gerald Vernon-Jackson wins Portsmouth council leadership". BBC News. 15 May 2018. Retrieved 21 April 2019.

[5] Ben Fishwick (26 March 2019). "Cosham councillor removed from Portsmouth council for not attending meetings". The News (Portsmouth). JPIMedia. Retrieved 15 April 2019.

[GU-racialissuesPmpy-6] Rajeev Syal (26 April 2019). "Tories and Labour accused of racial discrimination in Portsmouth". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 April 2019.

[7] "Election results for Baffins". Portsmouth.gov.uk. 3 May 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2019.

[8] "Councillor Jennie Brent Joins Liberal Democrats".

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