Local council · Cherwell
Bicester West
2 seats contested on Thursday 7 May 2026. 11 candidates from 6 parties.
Neighbours shaded by Reform UK share vs this ward, red = higher, blue = lower.
Predicted vote share
What the model expects
Predictions are point estimates: the model's best guess, not a guarantee. The "How this prediction was made" section below lists every step that shaped this forecast.
How accurate was the model here?
Our 7 May 2026 forecast for Bicester West
| Party | Predicted | Actual | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reform UK | 26.8% | 30.8% | -4.0pp |
| Conservative | 12.7% | 11.0% | +1.7pp |
Positive gap = we predicted that party would win more share than they did. See the full Cherwell accuracy summary or the national audit.
Recent contests
What happened last time
| Date | Type | Winner | Top share | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-05-02 | Cycle | Independent | 59.0% | declaration |
| 2023-05-04 | Cycle | Independent | 40.0% | declaration |
| 2022-05-05 | Cycle | Independent | 52.3% | declaration |
| 2021-05-06 | Cycle | Independent | 63.2% | declaration |
| 2019-05-02 | Cycle | Independent | 57.5% | declaration |
Candidates 2026
Parties on the ballot
- Animal Welfare Party
- Conservative and Unionist Party
- Green Party
- Independent
- Lib Dem
- Reform UK
How this area looks demographically
Figures are for Cherwell as a whole. The same local-authority figures are used for every ward in the council, finer ward-level demographics will land in a future release.
- White British (projected May 2026): 73.5% (Census 2021: 77.9%)
- Asian heritage (projected May 2026): 7.0% (Census 2021: 6.0%)
- Average area deprivation decile: 6.9 (1 = most deprived, 10 = least)
How this prediction was made
- Baseline . Most recent borough result (2024-05-02)
- BES MRP Prior . Baseline blended with BES Wave 1-30 south_east prior (weight 15%, n=5565 regional respondents)
- National Swing (STM) . Strong Transition Model: multiplicative bounded swing, dampened by 0.1 for local
- Demographics . 1 demographic factor(s) applied
- Incumbency . No current holder data available
- New Party Entry . Reform UK estimated at 17.5% from GE/LCC proxy + swing
- Normalise . All shares scaled to sum to 100%
- Restrict to ballot . Removed 4 party/parties not standing in 2026 (Labour 14.5pp, SNP 0.0pp, Other 0.0pp, Plaid Cymru 0.0pp). Their share redistributed pro-rata.
- 2025 county-cycle anchor . Anchor weight reduced to 0.10 because Independent won the latest borough cycle (59.0%) — a hyperlocal personal-vote stronghold not represented in cross-tier county results. Otherwise blended toward May 2025 oxfordshire (69 divisions, 191,820 votes).
- National-share calibration . Aggregate-predicted vs national-polled mismatch corrected at strength 0.65. Multipliers — Labour ×0.82, Conservative ×1.00, Reform UK ×1.15, Liberal Democrats ×0.96, Green Party ×1.12, SNP ×1.00, Plaid Cymru ×1.00.