Labour hold Willenhall South

11.04.51am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 22nd Jul 2005

Labour held Willenhall South in yesterday's by-election, the by-election was caused by the death of popular Labour Councillor Harold Withnall. The by-election was marred by a dirty campaign fought by the Labour Party who printed lies and misleading statements about the Liberal Democrats. The Conservatives also campaigned against the Liberal Democrats.

Bob Pearce the Liberal Democrat candidate said "I am obviously disappointed not to have done better, my campaign was fought on the issues that I thought mattered - health, education, crime and local services. The other parties decided that they would campaign against me and the Liberal Democrats and I am saddened to see such negative campaigning worked."

Bob stood in the 2004 Local Elections and came seventh in a field of nine (all three Council Seats were up). The Labour Party won all three seats topping the poll with 1333 votes, followed by a Conservative in fourth.

The full result:

Labour - 862 votes - 45.42%

Conservative - 486 votes - 25.61%

Bob Pearce - Liberal Democrat - 399 votes - 21.02%

BNP - 151 votes - 7.96%

Majority 376

Turnout 1898 votes - 19.56%