More candidates standing as Independents were voted in at the local elections in Brighton and Hove last week than at any time since the council was formed nearly 30 years ago.
And their vote share went up, with the nine candidates from one group, the Brighton and Hove Independents, picking up 4 per cent of the 83,426 votes cast.
This was more votes than the 30 Liberal Democrat candidates combined – and the new Independent group won two seats in the new Rottingdean and West Saltdean ward.
They have been emboldened by their success and hope to field candidates in every ward at the next local elections in four years’ time.
When the newly elected council meets, they will be joined by another Independent – Peter Atkinson, who polled more votes than every other candidate in North Portslade.
The Brighton and Hove Independents group was founded by Bridget Fishleigh, who first won a seat on Brighton and Hove City Council when she stood as an Independent in 2019.
Over the next four years, she was joined by six other Independents as they left or were asked to leave a political party – almost all of them Labour.
But even as the Independents grew in number, they did not form a political group on the council and were unable to become members of the council’s policy-making committees.
This was part of what prompted Councillor Fishleigh to form the Brighton and Hove Independents, register it with the Electoral Commission and seek like-minded potential candidates.
Councillor Fishleigh topped the poll in Rottingdean and West Saltdean, as she did in the old Rottingdean Coastal ward four years ago.
Her 2,266 votes gave her a vote share of more than 52 per cent. Fellow Brighton and Hove Independent candidate Mark Earthey took the second seat, with 1,593 votes in the new two-member ward.
In an area that was once regarded as “safe” Conservative territory, the Tories were pushed into fifth and sixth place behind the two Independents and the two Labour candidates.
She is now looking forward to four years of holding the new Labour majority council to account and building on her solid electoral performance.
Councillor Fishleigh said: “Labour has promised residents so much and now have the majority they need to deliver.
“I wish them all the best and hope that the first issues they will address are the looming disaster of Valley Gardens Phase 3 and the number of council-owned homes that are empty.
“I hope that Labour will include Dr Mark Earthey, newly elected councillor, in decision-making around climate change and green energy as these are his areas of expertise.”
Other Independents, including the Friends of Brighton and Hove, picked up 3 per cent of the overall vote, a significant increase from 1 per cent in the 2019 elections.
Councillor Atkinson was the only unaffiliated candidate to win a seat. He was elected twice previously – in 2015 and 2019 – as a Labour candidate. But he left Labour after becoming disgruntled with the party over its handling of anti-semitism.
He topped the poll in North Portslade last week with 1,064 votes – or a vote share of 43 per cent.
Councillor Atkinson said: “It was a humbling experience to receive such significant personal support.
“I took nothing for granted but I do pride myself on responding to residents in a timely manner and following issues up until resolved.
“I will also always try to represent the views of local residents and apply common sense wherever possible.”
Just days after the election, Brighton and Hove Independents candidates continue in campaign mode to remind people they are not going away.
Gary Farmer, who stood in Regency ward, has already changed his Facebook group title to Vote Farmer 2027.
Mr Farmer, who lives in Old Steine and runs a language school, was one of the first to sign up for the Brighton and Hove Independents. He plans to continue putting pressure on the new council leadership.
He came sixth with 369 votes in a two-member ward where about 2,700 people voted, finishing ahead of both Conservative candidates and one of the Liberal Democrats.
Mr Farmer said: “The experience gained from running in 2023 has been invaluable for me. We cannot lose this momentum. The appetite for a local independent political movement has been proven by our recent successes.
“Many more independent voices are needed. We need to encourage local people to come forward to stand with us – and the goal is to have candidates running in every ward in 2027.
“Remaining visible and active throughout the next four years is extremely important. We cannot be complacent and rest.
“We will evolve as a group and all options are open including running in the upcoming general election.”
The group’s candidate in Queen’s Park, Adrian Hart, came fifth with 467 votes in another two-member ward where about 3,100 people voted.
He finished behind Labour and the Greens but garnered more votes than the Conservative and Lib Dem candidates combined.
Mr Hart has been a long-time advocate for independent candidates in local government and said that the mood in the city was shifting away from the national parties.
He said: “The future is independent. As citizens grow to view the parties as unfit for local governance, they’ll come to us.”
“When I was out campaigning and talking to residents, the reaction to me was overwhelmingly positive.
“As election day approached, it felt as though I was running up against a Labour rallying cry of ‘don’t split the vote’ that tapped into national discontent with the Tory government as well as disappointment with the Greens here in the city.”
Over the coming four years, he and his fellow Independents aim to hold the new council leadership to account, speak up for their communities and prepare to win more seats.
We voted Labour because we wanted change. The town looks like a shambles and even in the national newspapers they are mentioning Brighton as being run by a left-wing council that is turning the place into down town San Francisco with rubbish and druggies everywhere. The Greens weren’t dealing with this. We just want a well cared for decent place to live and not somewhere where we don’t want to take our kids into town shopping to. No more new projects just focus on graffiti, getting junkies out of the town centre, cleaning the streets, weeding the parks and making sure the council gets back to work and listening to want residents want. This is a good chance to show labour can govern properly. If they don’t we will swing to the next candidate.
This is quite a curious angle to take. Mr Hart seems to be implying that him winning 467 votes is a success. Given that he got 500 votes at the 2019 election (also running as an independent), it seems that he is going backwards rather than forwards, and that his 2023 campaign has managed to put off 33 people who voted for him the last time. The reaction may have been “overwhelmingly positive”, as he states, but it doesn’t seem like this turned into a positive outcome at the ballot box. Rather than this bullish stance, perhaps he ought to reflect on what went wrong?
Bh independent are not true independents as they have to vote as agreed
“As election day approached, it felt as though I was running up against a Labour rallying cry of ‘don’t split the vote’ that tapped into national discontent with the Tory government as well as disappointment with the Greens here in the city.” (me reflecting on how votes that may have been mine went to Labour)
No they don’t.
No that’s not true, unfortunately there were a lot of “untruths” being spread during the campaign and some directly aimed at me by supporters for one party which were very offensive.
“As election day approached, it felt as though I was running up against a Labour rallying cry of ‘don’t split the vote’ that tapped into national discontent with the Tory government as well as disappointment with the Greens here in the city.” (me reflecting on how votes that may have been mine went to Labour)
“I would have got more votes if the electorate hadn’t chosen to vote for someone else instead of me” is precisely the sort of plain speaking of hard truths that the council is missing out by not electing Mr Hart.
But will they act as an effective Opposition to Labour or just get in bed with them?
Does everything have to be in such black-and-white terms?