Reform UK has lost another local by-election called after the party’s councillor quit days after winning the role.
The Conservatives comfortably won the Gnosall and Eccleshall division on Staffordshire County Council on Thursday night after securing 1,689 votes (44.4%).
Reform's Wayne Titley had won the seat in May’s local election but resigned just 10 days later citing “personal reasons”.
He had faced criticism over a, now removed, Facebook post that called for the Navy to intercept small boats carrying migrants to the UK with a "volley of gun fire aimed at sinking them".
Tory Jeremy Pert, who claimed the Staffordshire seat, thanked voters adding that no one “expected to see a by-election so early on and none of us wanted that”.
Despite the result, Nigel Farage’s party still has a sizably majority on the local authority with 48 councillors compared to the Tories on 11 and the Greens, Labour and Stafford Borough Independents with one each.
Earlier this month, Reform lost two local by-elections in Nottinghamshire and Durham also called after the party’s councillors had quit just days after being elected. The Liberal Democrats and Tories each claimed a seat.
The latest result means Mr Farage’s party has been unable to retain any seat it has defended.
However, Reform was celebrating adding three new councillors to its ranks on Thursday. Sam Journet was elected for the party in the St Martins ward on Basildon council with 1057 votes (44.6%). The seat had previously been held by Labour.
In Dartford, Stephen Ridley won the Maypole and Leyton Cross ward with nearly 54% of the vote while James Buchan took the Stone House seat with 45%. Both had previously been held by Conservatives.
It comes as Reform’s DOGE chief, Zia Yusuf, admitted that council tax was not going to be lowered in the eight local authorities the party seized control of in May’s local elections.
“I think anyone who looked at the numbers knows that the idea of council tax coming down is not going to happen, given the pressures in terms of social care,” he told Politico.
“What we can talk about is council tax in Reform councils increasing slower than other councils. I think that’s a sensible target.”
