There are six recent councillor defections to report.
The most high-profile change is the decision by Les Byrom, a longstanding Conservative councillor on Sefton borough council, to join the Labour Party. Cllr Byrom may be remembered as the Conservative candidate who was on the wrong end of a 17% swing to Labour at the Wirral South byelection shortly before the 1997 general election.
The Conservatives have movement in their favour on Shepway district council in Kent, where Anthony Dunning has left the Liberal Democrats to join them.
Having lost one councillor to the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats have proceeded to lose two to Labour. First was Katie Moffat of Midlothian council, whose defection ensured Labour majority control of the council; she was followed by Ali Demirci of Haringey borough council.
To compensate for those two, Labour has lost two councillors going in the opposite direction. Chaudhary Ditta of Buckinghamshire county council has followed his colleague Julia Wassell’s defection; and Ashfield borough councillor Christine Wakefield has also made the shift.
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