THURSDAY 25th July saw a council by-election in the Tulse Hill ward of the south London borough of Lambeth.

Labour retained the seat with 69% of the vote, increasing the gap between them and the Liberal Democrats (on 12%), whose vote share fell from 28% at the last full council elections in May 2010.

Third place on Thursday went to the Greens with 177 votes (7.7%) – but this didn’t represent an increase in their support.

In 2010 they had also come in third, with 759 votes (on a far higher turnout) and a 12% share.

In fourth place after the Greens came the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidate, Steve Nally, with 3.3% of the vote.

This is a modest score, of course, but it still put TUSC ahead of the Conservatives and UKIP and two other candidates.

In fact, TUSC has outperformed UKIP in the three inner-city London council by-elections it has contested this year.

In by-elections elsewhere on the same day, which TUSC didn’t contest, the Tories won a Lib Dem seat in Kingston, the Lib Dems won a Labour seat in Sefton on Merseyside, and the Conservatives lost a couple of seats in Somerset (while a Labour candidate in Essex polled 38 votes, 3.7%).

But in Lambeth, at least, more was on offer than a reshuffling of the same cards in the austerity pack.

July 25 – Lambeth council, Tulse Hill ward:

Labour 1,575; Liberal Democrats 277; Green 177; TUSC 76 (3.3%); Conservatives 74; UKIP 64; Independent 20; SPGB 11

Want to be a candidate?

If there is a by-election in your area and you wish to stand as a TUSC candidate, you need to get a Certificate of Authorisation from the TUSC National Nominating Officer to hand in with the nomination papers to the local council returning officer.

An application form is available on the TUSC website at https://www.tusc.org.uk/candidates.php