Labour destroy Lib Dems in Cambridge

The Labour Party swept to a convincing victory in Cambridge city last night, smashing the Liberal Democrat-led council into oblivion.

For the first time in 14 years, Labour will lead the city of Cambridge as we enter a General Election year. Hopes will now be high for the Labour candidate, Daniel Zeichner, to seize power from the Lib Dem incumbent Julian Huppert, cycling-frenzied MP for Cambridge since 2010.

Tab debate contributor and Labour obsessive Fred Cotterill said “Labour’s sweep to power emphasises how fed up students and townsfolk were of [sic] Liberal complacency. The work of a city-wide living wage campaign and other measures to expand our city’s prosperity can’t start soon enough.”

Whilst the Tories and Greens both scored a not appalling fourteen percent, neither gets a single councillor, whilst an independent got elected in Castle ward.

New council, new Cambridge?

There were a number of disappointed students who didn’t get elected. Former Chairman of CUCA, James Mottram, failed in his attempt to secure victory in Arbury, whilst CULC BNOC Sam Wolfe lost out to the Lib Dems in Newnham. Mottram, though, was buoyant: “I was very happy to see the Tory share of the vote go up in Arbury in contrast to the national trend – though the lack of UKIP candidate may have had something to do with that.”

Colin Rosenthiel, ambulance blocker extraordinaire and earlier this year accused of child abuse, came third in Market ward – a ward much coveted, and won, by Labour this year. He joins six other Lib Dems who seem to have been punished for their party’s role in government, and loses a seat to which he was first elected over forty years ago. Sarah Brown, a well-known transgender campaigner, also lost her seat in Petersfield.

Nigel Farage’s sole hope in the area failed to make much of an impression in East Chesterton, whilst there was doubtless much wailing as the independent candidate Puffles the Dragon Fairy gained only 89 votes in Coleridge.

Whilst the European elections have not yet declared, an anonymous Tory source said that the party was preparing for heavy defeats, expecting to lose all but one MEP for the Eastern region. UKIP is expected to do particularly well in the area, which includes Essex, a county in which they secured a significant number of seats in local elections.

UKIP-supporting former CUCA Chairman Callum Wood was indignant. “Nationally it looks like the status quo of boring LibLabCon consensus politics is coming to an end. In Cambridge, however, one predictable mob of leftists has replaced another. Plus ça change…”

A new statue for Cambridge?

So is Cambridge now to become a communist paradise with daily performances of The Red Flag and rallies for the Great Leader? Will council tax be hiked up (not that it affects us)? It remains to be seen what actual changes the new council will bring in, whether we will notice them, and indeed whether anyone actually cares. The Tab waits with baited breath.

The new council takes up the gauntlet of responsibility on 12^th June.