Yesterday was the Grange Hill by-election in Epping Forest District. After a very hard fought campaign the Conservative candidate (Kewal Chana) won with a majority of 23. As a result of this victory the Conservative Group takes overall control of the authority. The results were (as declared last night, but not currently on their website):
Conservative – 609
Liberal Democrats – 586
British National Party – 302
Labour – 48
The BNP campaign tactics are interesting – early campaign literature contained the wrong election date. On the day they had polling-station specific literature and published on red paper in Labour roads. After 10:30am, they moved all their people into their best area (the council estate) where historically turnout has been abysmal – percentage turnout in that polling district was exactly the same as the Conservatives’ best area.
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