Well we didn’t win, but I think the whole Lib Dem team should be extremely proud of a well fought campaign that concentrated on the issues that mattered (both locally and nationally). Personally, it was extremely gratifying to be able to help residents who felt abandoned by their current Labour councillors – and of course we ensured the extremist BNP were beaten into third place. The Tories were an embarrasing fourth, just ahead of UKIP and The Green Party.

Lib Dem: 293 (-1%)
Labour: 606 (-13%)
Conservative: 189 (-4%)
BNP: 276 (+5%)
Green: 125
UKIP: 123
Turnout: 17.5%

Commenting on the outcome, Swinton Lib Dem Councillor Steve Cooke wrote “Don’t know how they did it, but Labour seem to have had a late surge in votes. I’m guessing that the perceived threat from the BNP and the campaigning from third party anti-fascist groups may have caused some of their voters to hold their noses and go out to vote in spite of their local MP’s appalling behaviour. The damage to the reputation of all of the major parties, but particularly Labour, is clear from the increase in vote share to the minority parties. However, it’s also clear that they aren’t likely to be winning a seat in Salford any time soon.”

Tory Councillor Iain Lindley, replying to the result on The Manchester Evening News website commented “Scraping past a third of the vote on a low turnout in Labour’s second-safest ward in the City can hardly be considered a resounding endorsement.”

Voter apathy was apparent, when you consider that electorate of Irwell Riverside is around 9,000 and only 606 voted Labour – it seems until the current political scandal has passed, we will all be tarred with the same brush.