Liberal Democrat and former RGS Newcastle teacher Gerry Keating has been elected new councillor in North Jesmond – ensuring the Lib Dems retain control of all three seats in the ward.

Cllr Keating won by a landslide over a field of four other competitors on August 28th, significantly improving on the Lib Dem performance in the ward in May, which was retained by only 32 votes. More than 50% of votes went to the Lib Dem candidate in this by-election, a margin of victory the Lib Dems had forecast late in the course of polling day.

The by-election was triggered in late July by the stepping down of former Cllr Peter Andras, who took up a post at a university away from Newcastle.

The Lib Dems gained 711 votes at this by-election, beating Labour, who ran the Lib Dems close in May, on 320. The Conservative candidate gained 117 votes. The UKIP candidate had 112 votes, and the Greens garnered 94 votes.

As percentages of the overall vote, the Lib Dems increased their share 20%, from a third in May to more than half in August. Labour dropped from 31% to 24%. The Conservatives lost 5% share from May-August, ending up with 9% of the vote, while the Greens lost half their vote share in the past four months. UKIP polled steady at 8% in both polls.

And though Labour councillor Felicity Mendelson exclaimed shock at the number of those attending the count, declaring “what a lot of people”, turnout at polling stations on the day was significantly down compared to May’s vote, with nearly 600 fewer votes cast this month.

Accepting the result of the vote, Cllr Keating, who has previously been councillor elsewhere in Newcastle, told those assembled: “I never really did mean to come back. It was a number of factors, one of which was the close vote in this ward last May, but other factors as well – a bit of arm twisting caused me to put my name on the ballot paper.”