Labour candidate Ange Cooper has won the Kidsgrove Central and Ravenscliffe by-election for Kidsgrove Town Council, defeating Reform UK’s Olivia Westcott by just 26 votes.
Cooper received 403 votes in the poll held on Thursday 6 August 2026, while Westcott finished a close second with 377.
Independent candidate Georgia Shenton received 127 votes and Conservative Cressida Dickens took 122.
Turnout was recorded at 16.9%, with 1,034 ballot papers issued from an electorate of 6,120.
Kidsgrove Central and Ravenscliffe by-election result
| Candidate | Party or description | Votes | Vote share |
| Ange Cooper | Labour Party | 403 | 39.2% |
| Olivia Mae Westcott | Reform UK | 377 | 36.6% |
| Georgia Shenton | Independent | 127 | 12.3% |
| Cressida Diane Townley Dickens | Conservative Party | 122 | 11.9% |
Vote shares are calculated from the 1,029 valid votes cast and may not total exactly 100% because of rounding.
- Labour majority: 26 votes
- Electorate: 6,120
- Ballot papers issued: 1,034
- Valid votes: 1,029
- Rejected ballots: 5
- Turnout: 16.9%
Close Labour–Reform contest
Labour finished only 2.5 percentage points ahead of Reform UK in a closely fought contest between the two leading candidates.
Cooper secured 39.2% of the valid vote, compared with 36.6% for Westcott. Together, the Labour and Reform candidates received more than three-quarters of all valid votes cast.
Shenton placed third with 12.3%, narrowly ahead of Dickens on 11.9%. Only five votes separated the independent and Conservative candidates.
Returning Officer Gordon Mole formally declared Cooper elected after the count.
Why was the by-election held?
The vacancy followed an unusual sequence after the ordinary Kidsgrove Town Council elections in May.
Seven candidates were nominated for the seven available seats in Kidsgrove Central and Ravenscliffe. With no more candidates than vacancies, all seven—including Reform UK’s Olivia Westcott—were returned without a contested poll.
Westcott did not complete the required declaration of acceptance of office by the legal deadline attached to the town council’s first meeting. Her town council position consequently became vacant.
Westcott said at the time that a family emergency had prevented her from attending the meeting and that she had intended to complete the paperwork immediately afterwards. She remains an elected Reform UK member of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council.
Local electors subsequently requested a by-election, and four candidates were validly nominated for the poll on 6 August.
Not a conventional Labour gain
The result gives Labour the vacant town council seat, but it should not be treated as a straightforward like-for-like gain from a previous contested election.
Westcott had been declared elected unopposed in May but did not formally take up the office. There was therefore no earlier ward-wide vote against which a swing can reliably be calculated.
The clearest comparison is between the four candidates who contested this by-election: Labour won by 403 votes to Reform UK’s 377, with the independent and Conservative candidates some distance behind.
Reform had performed strongly locally in May
The result is notable because Reform UK performed strongly in the wider Kidsgrove and Ravenscliffe area during the Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council elections on 7 May.
Jonathan Gullis, Charlie Clarke and Olivia Westcott—then listed as Olivia Wozny—won all three borough council seats for Reform UK.
The town council by-election involved a different authority and ward arrangement, and turnout was substantially lower than at the borough election. It nevertheless provided the first contested test of local support following the unusual vacancy.
Labour’s 26-vote victory demonstrates how closely divided that smaller electorate was, while Reform came within little more than two dozen votes of returning Westcott to the town council.
Low turnout
Just under one in six registered electors participated in the by-election.
The official declaration records 1,034 ballot papers issued from an electorate of 6,120. Five papers were rejected: two because they were unmarked and three because they were void for uncertainty.
No ballots were rejected for voting for too many candidates, lacking an official mark or containing an identifying mark.
Low turnout is common in standalone parish and town council by-elections, but it limits how confidently the outcome can be treated as evidence of opinion across the wider Newcastle-under-Lyme area.
What does Kidsgrove Town Council do?
Kidsgrove Town Council is the most local tier of government serving Kidsgrove and the surrounding communities of Talke, Butt Lane, Newchapel and Mow Cop.
The council has 20 members across four wards. Its responsibilities and activities include local community facilities, events and representation on issues affecting the town.
The result does not change representation on Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, Staffordshire County Council or in Parliament.
Cooper now joins the town council as the seventh representative for Kidsgrove Central and Ravenscliffe.
Sources
- Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council: official declaration of result
- Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council: by-election results page
- Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council: town council vacancy notice
- The Staffordshire Signal: circumstances behind the vacancy
- The Staffordshire Signal: by-election candidates