Reform UK has gained the Snettisham ward on the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk after Ben Griffin won a closely fought by-election by just 18 votes.
Griffin received 229 votes in the poll held on Thursday 6 August 2026, securing 35.1% of the valid vote.
Liberal Democrat Lee Henson finished narrowly behind on 211 votes and 32.3%, while Conservative candidate Lissie Macfarlane placed third with 169 votes.
Labour’s Wilf Lambert received 44 votes. One ballot paper was rejected and official turnout was 29.62%.
Snettisham by-election result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | Vote share |
| Ben Griffin | Reform UK | 229 | 35.1% |
| Lee Henson | Liberal Democrats | 211 | 32.3% |
| Lissie Macfarlane | Conservatives | 169 | 25.9% |
| Wilf Lambert | Labour | 44 | 6.7% |
Vote shares are calculated from the 653 valid votes and may not total exactly 100% because of rounding. The council’s published percentages differ fractionally in places because its figures appear to use a different rounding method.
- Reform UK majority: 18 votes
- Valid votes: 653
- Rejected ballots: 1
- Electorate: 2,208
- Official turnout: 29.62%
- Lead over the Liberal Democrats: 2.8 percentage points
Reform gains Conservative seat
The result is a Reform UK gain from the Conservatives because the vacancy was created by the resignation of former Conservative councillor Stuart Dark.
Dark had represented Snettisham since 2018 and retained the ward at the May 2023 borough election with 413 votes, equivalent to 51.7% of the total.
The Conservatives’ share fell to 25.9% at the by-election. Macfarlane received 244 fewer votes than Dark had secured in 2023 and finished 60 votes behind the winner.
Reform and the Liberal Democrats had not fielded candidates in the ward at the previous full borough election. Their arrival transformed the contest, and together they attracted more than two-thirds of Thursday’s valid votes.
Liberal Democrats come within 18 votes
The narrow margin makes the Liberal Democrat performance almost as significant as the Reform victory.
Henson received 32.3% of the vote and came within 18 ballots of gaining the seat. A change of only ten votes from Griffin to Henson would have reversed the result.
The Conservatives were a further 42 votes behind the Liberal Democrats, meaning the party defending the vacancy was pushed into third place.
Labour’s share declined from 18.2% in 2023 to 6.7%. Lambert received 44 votes, compared with the 145 secured by Labour candidate Lesley Marriage at the previous borough election.
Comparison with the 2023 result
| Party | 2023 share | 2026 share | Change |
| Reform UK | Did not stand | 35.1% | New |
| Liberal Democrats | Did not stand | 32.3% | New |
| Conservatives | 51.7% | 25.9% | -25.8 |
| Labour | 18.2% | 6.7% | -11.4 |
| Independent | 30.2% | Did not stand | -30.2 |
Percentage-point changes are calculated from the official 2023 and 2026 results and may differ slightly because of rounding. Reform and Liberal Democrat changes are described as new because neither party contested Snettisham in 2023.
A conventional two-party swing cannot sensibly be calculated. The 2023 ballot contained Conservative, independent and Labour candidates, whereas the by-election added Reform and the Liberal Democrats but had no independent candidate.
Turnout and candidate effects also differ between a full council election and an isolated by-election. The comparison nevertheless shows the scale of the change: the Conservative vote share was halved as two new challengers occupied first and second place.
Why did Stuart Dark resign?
Dark resigned from the borough council in June, saying the time was right to step down and concentrate on his full-time work for a charity.
He had served Snettisham since 2018 and previously led the Conservative group on King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council.
His departure was one of two Conservative vacancies contested in neighbouring West Norfolk wards on 6 August. Andrew Jamieson’s resignation also triggered a by-election in Heacham, where Reform UK’s Paul Powers gained the seat.
Reform therefore took both Conservative-held West Norfolk seats contested on the same day, although the margins and local voting patterns differed between the two wards.
Griffin adds borough seat to county role
Griffin was already a Reform UK representative on Norfolk County Council before winning in Snettisham.
He was elected for the King’s Lynn North and Central division in May 2026 with 740 votes, defeating Labour, Green, Conservative, Liberal Democrat, independent and Communist candidates.
Holding seats on both a county and a district council is permitted under the present two-tier local government structure. Griffin will therefore represent Snettisham at borough level while continuing as a Norfolk county councillor.
The two authorities perform different functions. The borough council is responsible for services including planning, housing and waste collection, while the county council covers areas such as adult social care, children’s services, highways and education.
A close result in coastal West Norfolk
Snettisham is a village and coastal ward north of King’s Lynn, close to The Wash and the RSPB’s internationally recognised nature reserve.
The by-election does not alter control of the borough council on its own, but it further reduces the Conservative representation inherited from the 2023 elections and adds another Reform councillor to the authority.
For Reform, the result is a gain and part of a broader run of local progress in Norfolk. For the Liberal Democrats, an 18-vote defeat provides evidence that the party can compete strongly in a ward it did not contest three years earlier.
The Conservatives’ third-place finish is the clearest warning in the result. A ward they won with an outright majority in 2023 was lost within three years, with two rival parties overtaking them.