SEVEN HUNDRED AND FOUR GAINS Wow. This was well above Liberal Democrat expectations, not only those given out publicly but those internally as well. By polling day, I was thinking that around 500 gains might be possible, influenced heavily by which wards local parties chose to send me and colleagues to when we turned up to help. Not held wards. Not marginal wards. But long-shot wards. When you are sent to long-shot wards in several different councils, there’s a clear picture emerging of how campaigning is really going. But even so. 704. It’s been lovely to have my inbox fill up with emails from colleagues around the country excited by how well they’ve done. Even more telling perhaps has been the remarkably positive tone from those with tales of heartbreakingly close misses. In previous years such emails have frequently contained anger or frustration about what someone else in the party (often ‘them at HQ’) supposedly did which messed up their chances. This time, rather, the tone has been much more frequently of determination to try again – even from those for whom next time is four years away. It’s tough losing, and even tougher when so many around you are celebrating big wins. To still be able to share in the joy at the party’s results shows just how much joy there is to go around. If you want to go for it again, I’m sure your time will come soon. Thank you for being a part of our national vote share and the national media story – it has really made a difference. Thank you too to the hundreds of volunteer agents, especially as a key part of your job, getting all the legal paperwork sorted and submitted, is still to come. Before looking at some of the context and lessons, here are some of the highlights from the victories: +704 net gains

More than the Liberal Democrats have ever achieved and more than I can find in any records for the SDP and Liberals going back to 1945. (It’s just possible that, say, in a post-Orpington year the party topped 704 – do let me know if you know better.) National vote share up

19% projected national share of the vote for the BBC and 17% projected share for Thrasher and Rallings – i.e. what the party would have won if the whole country had been up for election. (Different methodologies are used for these calculations. That they consistently come up with similar results gives reassurance that the results are meaningful.) More Lib Dem councils

18 councils elected a Liberal Democrat majority this time, which depending on how you count is up 11 or 12. To explain, the straightforward 10 are Bath and North East Somerset, Chelmsford, Cotswold, Hinckley and Bosworth, Mole Valley, North Devon, North Norfolk, Teignbridge, Vale of White Horse and Winchester. The eleventh is the new council of Somerset West & Taunton. The twelfth is South Somerset, where the party was technically just short of a majority in 2015 making this time’s 22 seat majority a stonking gain. Not 22 seats; a 22 seat majority. Those with Lib Dem holds were Eastbourne, Eastleigh, Oadby & Wigston, South Lakeland, Three Rivers and Watford. There will be even more Lib Dem council leaders as in some councils with no overall control, the Liberal Democrats are in the driving seat for running the council. And other good news

Safely re-elected was Dave Hodgson as the directly elected Mayor of Bedford. The results have triggered a wave of new members joining the party and others signing up as registered supporters. To cap it all off, the Alliance Party in Northern Ireland, the Lib Dem sister party, gained 21 seats in their local elections too. A few results particularly to call out: In what is becoming an annual feature, 2019 saw Lib Dem progress again in Barnsley, three gains this time following up the 2018 breakthrough.

Tim Prater is building up quite the electoral record. As he tweeted after gaining a council seat, “A Folkestone and Hythe political footnote. Rory Love, Linda Cufley and Robert Bliss have all led Shepway (now Folkestone & Hythe) District Council in the last 20 years. I’ve now taken a seat off them all – Linda in 2007, Robert (County) 2009 and Rory 2019.”

When Chelmsford’s Stephen Robinson first explained to me how they could go from five councillors to control of the council… in just one set of elections, I was rather sceptical. I’m glad I didn’t let my scepticism last. This was by no means the only dramatic Lib Dem advance, but it is the one with the funniest article by a now defeated council leader. Go read how the Conservatives in advance of the election talked about how they had ignored advice from CCHQ and mostly avoided canvassing, didn’t do social media and were still confident of winning.

Four years ago, Sarah Dyke’s victory by one vote in a South Somerset ward gave the Liberal Democrats 29 seats to 28 for the Conservatives. This time she was re-elected.. with 72% of the vote in a direct head-to-head with the previous Conservative councillor.

Lovely to see my former home city of York run up 9 Liberal Democrat gains. That’s the place where I first stood for election and first artworked an election leaflet (and if you’re reading this Andrew and colleagues from back then… I still stand by my choice of a front page story on Bosnia).