“No point complaining if you don’t do anything about it”. That is what one passionate resident said after learning that his town had one of the lowest ever turnouts at the by-election in December 2022.
Ashton, in Ashton-in-Makerfield, Wigan, saw just 5.34 per cent of eligible voters tick a ballot paper in the last by-election five months ago. On December 15, Labour's Coun Andrew Bullen came out on top of the three horse race with 294 of the 470 overall votes.
Although records cannot confirm this is the lowest turnout ever, councillors and officials at the count believed it was a grim new record, while poll aggregator Britain Elects feared it could have been ‘the lowest council by-election turnout in post-war history. Postal strikes and sub-zero temperatures were thought to be a large factor in the lack of voter motivation.
