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Skipton West on Craven (Lib Dem defence)
Result: Labour 185 (24% +2%), Liberal Democrats 143 (19% -8%), Conservatives 131 (17% -9%), UKIP 126 (16%), Independent 120 (16% -2%), Green 67 (9%)
Labour GAIN from Liberal Democrats with a majority of 42 (5%) on a swing of 5% from Lib Dem to Lab

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RobD

First... ner ner Peter!

Ken

Old Laund Booth: I'll tell you what I know, which isn't much. The ward is made up of two tiny villages, both middle class and white. The average age is older than the rest of the Pendle district, which largely consist of the towns of Colne and Nelson. The ward does not return three councillors since it only has about 1,200 voters so it gets one.

UKIP got just 27 votes so I called my source in the local party who reported that the purple candidate was just a paper one. Still, 27 votes in a region that UKIP have desires on is not good. The best guess is that Tory voters swung behind the LD candidate to ensure that UKIP got a stuffing. The very high turnout tends to suggest that something like that was going on as well.

The fact that Labour did not bother running might suggest that a quiet deal was done, with Labour standing down, the Tories not trying very hard and the LD throwing everything in to hold the seat. The aim being in the best traditions of incestuous East Lancs politics, to keep the UKIP insurgency out. UKIP helped by only having a nominal candidate.