Liberal Democrats prevent reform in Kent by-election

Liberal Democrat Alex Eyre defeated a strong challenge from Reform to retain Priory Ward in Swale in a rare Tuesday by-election held following the death of councillor and former mayor Mike Henderson.

Our city councillor Hannah paid tribute to Mike at the time:

Mike was a dedicated public servant who worked hard for the people of Faversham and particularly those in the Priory district.

We have lost a large part of our local Liberal Democrat team and without him, his wise advice, his quick wit, his kindness and the occasional summons to Bridge House to be enlightened by him on something, local politics would not be the same.

We will all miss him very much and I am sure his residents will too.

During this difficult time, our thoughts are especially with his family, whom he idolized and was so proud of.

Andrew Teale’s Britain Elects by-election preview gives us an insight into the borough’s recent voting history:

Our lovely host Ben Walker's modelling of the 2024 general election results assumes that the Priory ward was a close three-way tie between the Conservatives, Labour and Reform UK, with the Conservatives most likely to have won the ward. Faversham is the largest town in the Conservative-held parliamentary seat of Faversham and Mid Kent, where new shadow transport secretary Helen Whately narrowly held on to a fourth term in office in July, beating Labour by just 1,469 votes. However, in local elections, Faversham is a Liberal Democrat hotspot. It is represented by the Liberal Democrats on Kent County Council, and all five seats on Swale Council won by the Liberal Democrats in 2023 were for wards in the town.

Here is the result from our friends at ALDC:

Swale Council By-Election – Priory District

Liberal Democrats HOLD.

🔶 Liberal Democrat Alex Eyre: 365 42.5% (-12.1)
🔘 RFM: 200 26.9% (New)
🔵 CONS: 153 20.6% (-3.5)
🔴 LAB: 74 10.0% (-3.6)

No GRN (-7.6)

🎉 Congratulations to Cllr Eyre and the whole team on a hard fought win 🥇

The Reform Party went from losing zero votes to over a quarter of the vote. Although our vote fell by 12%, Alex Eyre and her team held them at bay and won convincingly and, importantly, they won more votes than the Conservatives and Reform Party combined.

Congratulations to the brilliant Liberal Democrat team in Faversham.

* Caron Lindsay is editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings