Tories beat Reform in Staffordshire County Council by-election

A by-election, which was called after a Reform UK councillor stepped down just two weeks after he was elected, has been won by the Conservatives.

Jeremy Pert won Thursday’s contest for the vacant Gnosall and Eccleshall seat on Staffordshire County Council after securing 1,689 votes (44.4%).

The Green Party came second with 1,037 votes (27.3%), followed by Reform on 938 votes (24.7%) and Labour on 140 votes (3.7%). Turnout was 34.8%.

The seat was vacated by Reform’s Wayne Titley in May after he faced criticism over a post on Facebook in March that called on the Navy to intercept small boats attempting to reach Britain and use a “volley of gun fire aimed at sinking them”.

Titley has not addressed the post, which has since been removed, but he said he was resigning for “personal reasons”.

The by-election result left Reform with 48 councillors on the authority, a clear majority, with the Conservatives on 11 and the Greens, Labour and Stafford Borough Independents with one apiece.

Pert was an Eccleshall councillor for eight years until he was beaten to the seat by Titley in May’s local elections by just 27 votes.

He had served as a cabinet member on the Conservative administration and is also the current opposition group leader at Stafford Borough Council.

Following his victory, he paid tribute to the elections team and count staff, describing the process as a “well-oiled machine”.

He added: “None of us expected to see a by-election so early on and none of us wanted that. Thank you to everyone for coming out and voting.

“The work starts tomorrow. I have been elected by the residents of Eccleshall and Gnosall and I am here to support them.”