Labour has won the Leen Valley by-election in Nottingham after Abbas Hussain finished 166 votes ahead of Nottingham People's Alliance candidate Parveen Begum.
Hussain received 689 votes, giving Labour 30.5 per cent of the valid vote. Begum placed second with 523 votes, while Reform UK's Stuart Frost finished third on 410.
Leen Valley result in full
| Candidate | Party | Votes | Share |
| Abbas Hussain | Labour | 689 | 30.5% |
| Parveen Begum | Nottingham People's Alliance | 523 | 23.2% |
| Stuart Frost | Reform UK | 410 | 18.2% |
| Hugh McGuinness | Green | 378 | 16.7% |
| Gail Stancliffe | Conservative | 189 | 8.4% |
| Liz Morgan-Danvers | Liberal Democrats | 68 | 3.0% |
Turnout was 31.82 per cent, according to Nottingham City Council.
Labour wins back former party seat
The vacancy arose after former councillor Nadia Farhat automatically ceased to hold office under local government attendance rules. Nottingham City Council said she had not attended a qualifying meeting for six months and that her absence had not been approved in advance.
Farhat was elected as a Labour councillor in May 2023 but left the party later that year and subsequently sat as an Independent. Describing the result simply as a conventional Labour hold would therefore miss an important part of the seat's recent history: Labour won a vacancy previously represented by someone elected under its banner but no longer belonging to the party.
At the 2023 election, Labour won both Leen Valley seats. Audrey Dinnall led the poll with 1,416 votes and Farhat received 1,338. That contest filled two seats and allowed electors to vote for up to two candidates, whereas the by-election offered one vote for one vacancy.
The different voting arrangements and substantially changed party field mean a conventional swing comparison with 2023 would be unreliable.
A fragmented contest
Labour won despite receiving less than one-third of the valid vote, reflecting a contest in which support was divided across six candidates. The Nottingham People's Alliance took a strong second place, while Reform and the Greens both recorded substantial totals.
The result restores Labour's representation in the vacant seat and takes the party's group to 44 councillors. Nottingham City Council said the Nottingham People's Alliance group has six members, the Nottingham Independents and Independent group has four, and one councillor is outside a political group.
Across the four council by-elections held on 20 August, Labour won Penistone East from Reform UK and Leen Valley, but lost Harraby South to Reform. The Liberal Democrats also took St Neots Eynesbury from Reform.