Conservative Gains High

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31343, 13 April 1967, Page 13

Conservative Gains High

(N. Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, April 12. Conservatives fighting coun t y council elections throughout Britain last night hailed their victory in Nottinghamshire as proof that the party is on the way back nationally.

The Labour Party has held the Midlands county of Nottinghamshire for 21 years. The county is a mining and light industrial centre which

showed strong support generally for Labour in the last General Election.

The swing towards the Conservatives shown in yesterdays elections gave them a gain of nine seats soon after midnight while counting was still incomplete. The Conservatives, who the previous day won Norfolk, also gained control of West Sussex yesterday. But it was a paper gain. The Conservative Party supporters had held the county previously under the title of Independents.

Labour also lost control in Carmarthenshire after nine years, where the big surprise was the defeat of the Labour leader, Aiderman W. Douglas Hughes, a member for 30 years, and his wife, Aiderman Mrs L. Hughes, at Llanelly, by an Independent and Liberal candidate. Labour made a strong challenge in Oxfordshire, a Conservative stronghold, by fielding 33 candidates, but they lost six seats.