Before 2016 the Labour Party said it had held no council seats in the Portswood ward for 35 years – but following Thursday’s (2019) local election all three councillors are now Labour.
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Following John Savage’s election for Labour in 2016, in 2018 Lisa Mitchell was also elected as a councillor for Portswood ward, which also covers St Denys and Highfield.
And on May 2 Gordon Cooper, who describes himself as a media educator and political campaigner on his Twitter profile, took what had been Conservative Matthew Claisse’s seat (who wasn’t standing) for Labour with 1219 votes.
Lisa Mitchell tweeted: “Can't tell you how proud I am to have a third Labour councillor in Portswood. And super proud to be part of a team with @Coopersphere and @savage1958 both very good eggs"
In second place in Thursday’s election came James Read for the Lib Dems with 1016 votes. Katherine Barbour for the Green Party polled 637, James Burgess for “Local Conservatives” won 615 votes, and 48 people voted for Nick Chaffey for “Socialist Alternative - Putting People First”.
The turnout was 34.42% from a 10339 electorate.
Overall Labour increased their seats in the city council chamber by three.
The full make-up of the council is now as follows:
Conservatives: 18 seats (-1)
Labour: 29 seats (+3)
Independents: 1 seat (-2)
To see the results in other Southampton wards, see the council's website.