Reform UK has won the Cuxton, Halling & Riverside seat on Medway Council, taking the ward from the Conservatives for the first time since the authority was created in 1998.
William Burvill topped the poll with 838 votes, a 35.7% vote share, in a five-way contest held on 23 July. The Conservatives' Richard Thorne came second with 726 votes (30.9%), followed by the Green Party's Trish Marchant on 482 votes (20.5%), Labour's Iain Childs on 269 votes (11.4%), and the Liberal Democrats' Ronald Gillett on 35 votes (1.5%).
Why the Seat Was Vacant
The by-election was triggered by the death of Conservative councillor Phil Filmer, who had represented the ward for more than three decades. Filmer had reportedly been living with vascular dementia for some time before his death, prompting questions locally about why he had not stood down from the role sooner.
Filmer and his Conservative colleague Matt Fearn had won both seats on offer in the ward at the last full council elections in May 2023, a result that came even as the Conservatives lost overall control of Medway Council after 20 years in charge.
A Result Built on Fragmentation
The result marks a significant shift for a ward that has consistently returned Conservative councillors since Medway's creation, despite boundary changes over the years. Reform UK's win reflects a wider pattern seen across recent Kent and Medway by-elections, where the party has been converting rising visibility into actual votes at the expense of the Conservatives.
The Green Party's third-place finish is a notable comedown from 2023, when their candidate Matt Nightingale came within 44 votes of taking one of the ward's two seats outright. Despite hopes that momentum from that near-miss, and from recent Green by-election gains elsewhere in Medway, would carry through, Marchant's vote share fell well short of a serious challenge this time.
Labour's performance was similarly subdued, with the party's Iain Childs finishing fourth, some way behind the top three, in a contest that had been expected to test whether a national Labour recovery under Andy Burnham's influence could translate into local gains.
What It Means Locally
With five candidates splitting the vote fairly evenly across the top four parties, the by-election underscores how fragmented the traditional two-party contest in Medway has become. Reform's win adds one seat to their council presence, while the Conservatives lose a seat they had held without interruption, extending a run of losses for the party in what were once considered safe wards across the borough.