Reform UK has held Throckley, Walbottle & Newburn in a Newcastle City Council by-election, but with a reduced share of the vote as the Liberal Democrats surged into second place.
Martin Paul Evison won the seat for Reform with 901 votes, equivalent to 39% of ballots cast, according to the official Newcastle City Council declaration.
Liberal Democrat Stephen Kelly finished second with 670 votes, or 29%, while Labour's Linda Isabel Wright was third on 534 votes, or 23.1%.
The Greens and Conservatives finished a distant fourth and fifth respectively, with Kimberley Barrass receiving 103 votes and Conservative Alexis Fernandes 101.
Full Throckley, Walbottle & Newburn result
- Martin Paul Evison — Reform UK — 901 votes (39%)
- Stephen Kelly — Liberal Democrats — 670 votes (29%)
- Linda Isabel Wright — Labour and Co-operative — 534 votes (23.1%)
- Kimberley Barrass — Green Party — 103 votes (4.5%)
- Alexis Fernandes — Conservative — 101 votes (4.4%)
The electorate was 7,023 and 2,312 ballot papers were cast, giving a turnout of 32.9%. Three ballots were rejected.
Reform therefore won with a majority of 231 votes over the Liberal Democrats.
Reform successfully defends seat
The contest was triggered by the resignation of Reform councillor Amy Hunter, who had been elected only in May.
Hunter was one of three Reform candidates who swept the newly drawn Throckley, Walbottle & Newburn ward at Newcastle's all-out council elections on 7 May.
Her departure left Reform defending the vacancy less than four months after its breakthrough.
Despite a lower vote share than in May, Evison's victory means the seat remains in Reform hands.
Reform swept all three seats in May
The previous election demonstrates how strongly Reform performed in the ward earlier this year.
Richard Paul Barnes topped the May poll with 1,380 votes, Michael Vincent Fitzpatrick received 1,335 and Amy Edith Molly Hunter won 1,297.
All three were elected for Reform UK.
Labour's strongest candidate was Linda Wright on 914 votes, followed by Adam Walker on 851 and Mark Hardy on 837.
The official council analysis put Reform's party vote share at around 44%, with Labour on 29%, the Greens on 14%, Conservatives on 9% and Liberal Democrats on 5%.
Reform vote share slips
Thursday's result therefore saw Reform's share fall from roughly 44% in May to 39% in the by-election.
That represents a decline of around five percentage points, although comparisons between an all-out three-seat election and a single-seat by-election should be treated cautiously.
Turnout was also substantially lower. In May, 44.8% of the ward's electorate voted; Thursday's by-election turnout was 32.9%.
Nevertheless, Reform remained clearly ahead and secured another victory in a ward where it established itself as the dominant force earlier this year.
Liberal Democrats make dramatic advance
The most eye-catching movement came from the Liberal Democrats.
The party had polled only around 5% across the ward in May, when its three candidates received 150, 133 and 124 votes.
Stephen Kelly secured 670 votes on Thursday, giving the Liberal Democrats a 29% share and second place.
The comparison is not a direct swing calculation because May was a multi-member contest with voters able to support several candidates. Even so, the increase in the Liberal Democrat share is substantial.
The result gives the party another indication that its position as the largest group on Newcastle City Council can translate into support beyond its existing strongest wards.
Labour falls back to third
Labour's result was more difficult.
Linda Wright, who had been Labour's strongest candidate in the ward in May with 914 votes, received 534 in the by-election and finished third.
Labour's 23.1% share was below the approximately 29% party share recorded in May.
Again, the different electoral formats mean the figures should not be treated as a conventional like-for-like swing, but the outcome leaves Labour behind both Reform and the Liberal Democrats in this western Newcastle ward.
Greens and Conservatives squeezed
The Green Party and Conservatives were heavily squeezed in the single-seat contest.
Green candidate Kimberley Barrass, who had also contested the ward in May, received 103 votes, or 4.5%.
Conservative Alexis Fernandes finished just two votes behind on 101, giving the party 4.4%.
That meant more than nine in ten votes cast went to Reform, the Liberal Democrats or Labour.
Newcastle remains finely balanced
The by-election took place against an unusual political backdrop at Newcastle City Council.
All 78 seats were contested under new boundaries in May, producing no overall majority.
The Liberal Democrats emerged as the largest party with 25 seats, while Reform UK and the Greens each won 24 and Labour was reduced to just two councillors. Three independents were also elected.
Hunter's resignation temporarily reduced Reform's representation and created the vacancy. Evison's victory restores that seat to the party.
The Liberal Democrats continue to run the authority as a minority administration.
A Reform hold — but a more competitive contest
For Reform UK, the central fact is straightforward: it was challenged for a seat won during its May surge and successfully defended it.
The party's 39% share was lower than its performance in the all-out election, but Evison still finished ten percentage points ahead of his nearest rival.
The Liberal Democrats will take encouragement from moving from a distant fifth-place party share in May to second place with 29%.
Labour, meanwhile, failed to capitalise on Reform's reduced share and slipped behind the Liberal Democrats.
As with every council by-election, caution is needed before drawing national conclusions. But in a ward Reform swept less than four months ago, Thursday's vote provides a useful early measure of how the parties are performing since May's dramatic reshaping of Newcastle politics.