Reform UK candidate Katie Groom has won the Harton ward by-election in South Tyneside, retaining the seat for her party with 628 votes.
Groom finished 274 votes ahead of Labour’s Neil Maxwell, who placed second with 354 votes in the poll held on Thursday 6 August 2026.
Green Party candidate Kathryn Kaupa came third on 312 votes, followed by independent Karen Louise Myers with 285.
Turnout was 28.3%, with 1,780 ballots recorded from an electorate of 6,288.
Harton ward by-election result
| Candidate | Party or description | Votes | Vote share |
| Katie Groom | Reform UK | 628 | 35.3% |
| Neil Maxwell | Labour Party | 354 | 19.9% |
| Kathryn Kaupa | Green Party | 312 | 17.5% |
| Karen Louise Myers | Independent | 285 | 16.0% |
| Phil Brown | Independent | 119 | 6.7% |
| Sam Hill | Conservative Party | 57 | 3.2% |
| Mark Robson | Liberal Democrats | 24 | 1.3% |
South Tyneside Council reports the displayed vote shares. The seven candidate totals add up to 1,779 valid votes; percentages may not total exactly 100% because of rounding.
- Reform UK majority: 274 votes
- Valid candidate votes: 1,779
- Ballots recorded: 1,780
- Electorate: 6,288
- Turnout: 28.3%
Reform UK holds the seat
The result is a Reform UK hold. The vacancy was created by the resignation of Alex Clarke, who had been elected as one of three Reform councillors for Harton at South Tyneside’s whole-council election in May.
Groom secured 35.3% of the valid vote. Although that was short of an overall majority, the first-past-the-post system requires only that the successful candidate receives more votes than any opponent.
Labour emerged as Reform’s nearest challenger with 19.9%, while the Greens finished 42 votes behind Labour on 17.5%. The two independent candidates together received 404 votes, equivalent to 22.7% of the valid vote.
The Conservative and Liberal Democrat candidates received a combined 81 votes.
Lower turnout than in May
The council’s result records 570 in-person ballots and 1,210 postal ballots, producing an overall turnout of 28.3%.
Postal participation was recorded at 72%, compared with 12.4% among the ward’s in-person electorate.
Turnout was substantially below the 43.6% recorded at the May whole-council election. That is not unusual for a standalone by-election held without other elections taking place on the same day.
How the result compares with May
Reform UK won all three Harton seats on 7 May. Shaun Barclay led the poll with 1,171 votes, followed by Alex Clarke on 1,136 and Jim Mouat on 1,133.
Karen Louise Myers was the highest-placed non-Reform candidate in May with 674 votes. Green candidate Kathryn Kaupa received 435 and Labour’s Neil Maxwell took 413.
The two elections are not directly comparable. May’s contest elected three councillors and voters could support up to three candidates, whereas the August by-election filled one vacancy and each elector had a single vote.
It would therefore be misleading to calculate a conventional party swing by comparing the raw candidate totals. What can safely be said is that Reform again finished first, Labour moved into second place and turnout fell by 15.3 percentage points.
Why was the Harton by-election held?
The contest followed the resignation of newly elected Reform UK councillor Alex Clarke.
Clarke had won one of the ward’s three seats in May but left South Tyneside Council little more than a month later.
In media interviews following his departure, Clarke said he believed the councillor’s role had been “mis-sold” to him and that he had expected it to involve attending only six meetings each year.
His resignation required a new election to fill the remainder of the council term.
South Tyneside remains under Reform control
The Harton result does not alter control of South Tyneside Council.
Reform UK won 41 of the authority’s 54 seats at the May election, giving the party a substantial majority. The Green Party returned ten councillors, independents won two seats and Labour retained one.
Holding Harton means Reform replaces Clarke with another party councillor rather than surrendering the vacancy to an opposition candidate.
The result nevertheless shows a fragmented opposition vote. Labour, the Greens and the two independents each secured between 16% and 20% individually, but none came close to Groom’s total.