There were two council by-elections gains for Labour from Reform UK on Thursday night, in areas that would be considered home turf for Nigel Farage’s party.
At May’s local elections, Reform claimed a landslide majority on Thurrock Council in Essex, winning 45 of the 49 seats on the council.
Essex could well be considered Reform’s heartland, with the party having a majority on Essex County Council and Farage’s former constituency of Clacton being located in the county.
But even here, Reform are starting to see losses.
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On Thursday there were two Thurrock council by-elections, in Grays Riverside and Grays Town – and Reform lost both of them to Labour.
The by-elections had been triggered by the Reform councillors for the wards, Joe Soper and Marc Stanley, both resigning just two weeks after they were elected on May 7.
Both cited personal reasons.
In Grays Town, Reform saw their vote share drop by 7.8% whilst Labour increased theirs by 5.3%. This saw Labour councillor Amin Hoque elected as councillor.
Meanwhile, Labour candidate Jo Potter was elected in Grays Riverside after Labour increased their vote share by 3.8% and Reform saw theirs drop by 5/1%.
Following these two by-election defeats, Reform now holds 43 seats on the council, whilst Labour hold four and the Conservatives hold two.
These by-election defeats come at the end of a week that has seen Reform’s lead at the top of the national polls reduced dramatically, as Labour experience something of a ‘Burnham bounce.’