April 13, 2023 7.00 am This story is over 12 months old

Liberal Democrats fighting only one in five seats in Lincolnshire local elections

Party remains hopeful of breakthrough
| Photo: Adobe Stock
By Local Democracy Reporter

The Liberal Democrats are hoping to make a breakthrough in next month’s local elections, despite only contesting 21% seats in Lincolnshire.

The party is contesting 60% of council seats in England and Wales, their highest level since 2007.

However figures show that Lincolnshire remains a challenging area for the party to find candidates.

While they are contesting nearly all seats in Lincoln and West Lindsey, there are just 23 running across the remaining seats in Greater Lincolnshire.

Six candidates are running under the party’s banner in both South Hykeham and Boston Borough, and there are no party representatives standing in North Lincolnshire or South Holland at all.

See all of the candidates standing across Lincolnshire

Despite this, Councillor Trevor Young, the leader of the Liberal Democrats in West Lindsey, insisted the party is growing and more candidates will emerge in those neglected areas in due time.

He said: “It’s about trying to grow our membership and our branches in some areas that are more developed than others.

“We’re getting stronger every year and the number of people coming forward interested in standing is very positive.”

Councillor Young continued by saying he’s confident the party can take control of West Lindsey District Council as a Liberal Democrat standing in all but one of its 36 wards.

“In West Lindsey, we’re very optimistic as we believe the Tory vote will collapse,” he said.

With a total of 7,512 candidates standing in England and Wales, the Tories are fighting the most seats but have seen their proportion decline to 93% – their lowest level since 2007.

Labour’s proportion of candidates per seat has remained the same at 77%.

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