Labour has suffered a double by-election blow, as the party lost seats in Cardiff and Newcastle to the Green Party.
Sir Keir Starmer’s party lost the Grangetown ward on Cardiff Council and South Jesmond seat on Newcastle City Council.
Grangetown (Cardiff)
It was a successful night in Wales for the Greens, as the party won its first council seat in the Welsh capital.
Matt Youde won the by-election in Labour stronghold Grangetown with 818 votes; pulling 44 votes ahead of Labour’s Khuram Chowdhry.
Plaid Cymru’s Neil Roberts came third, followed by Joseph Martin of Reform UK with 495 votes.
Vincent Yewlett of Welsh nationalist party Propel came fifth with 327 votes with Independent candidate Ahmed Samater sixth on 158 votes and the Conservative candidate James Hamblin in seventh.
At the foot of the table was the Liberal Democrats’ Irfan Latif with just 63 votes.
The by-election, which was caused by the resignation of Labour councillor Sara Robinson, had turnout of 26.7 per cent.
One of the “five towns of Cardiff”, Grangetown, in the southwest of the Welsh capital, is one of the largest districts in the city council.
At last year’s General Election, Labour’s Stephen Doughty was re-elected for the corresponding Cardiff South and Penarth seat he has held since winning a by-election in 2012.
Mr Doughty won with a slightly reduced majority of 11,767 with Welsh Green leader Anthony Slaughter coming second and the Conservative’s Ellis Smith in close third.
Reacting to Youde’s victory, Mr Slaughter, who is hoping to win the party’s first seat at the Welsh Senedd elections next year, wrote on social media: “People are tired of old ‘Business as usual’ politics and are voting for real hope and real change.”
Despite last night’s result, Labour still hold a healthy majority on the city council, with 55 councillors.
South Jesmond (Newcastle)
In Newcastle, Labour sunk into third place after being defeated by the Greens as Dr Sarah Peters beat competition from the Liberal Democrats to become the third councillor for Adrian Ramsay and Carla Denyer’s party in the city.
Labour were defending the safe seat vacated by the resignation of Milo Barnett earlier this year.
Jude Browne finished in second for the Lib Dems on 523 votes, with Labour’s Owen Bell in third on 267 votes.
Reform UK’s Gavin Maw came in fourth on 173 votes with Stephen Dawes from the Tories in dead last on just 45 votes.
The turnout was 30.76 per cent.
Dr Sarah Peters has won in Jesmond
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NEWCASTLE GREEN PARTY
Welcoming the news, Councillor Nick Hartley wrote on social media: “Newcastle City Council has just elected who I’m sure will be their hardest working councillor in Sarah Peters. Two becomes three for the Newcastle Green Group!”
Party leadership hopeful Zack Polanski added: “Sarah is going to be a brilliant councillor and I’m really happy to see this.”
The council has been under no overall control since November 2024, being run by a minority Labour administration.
At last year’s General Election, the corresponding Newcastle upon Tyne North seat returned a Labour MP, with Catherine McKinnell retaining her seat she has held since 2010 with a majority of 17,762.
Guy Renner-Thompson from the Conservatives came second, with the Liberal Democrat candidate Aidan King in third on 5,936 separated by just three votes from Reform’s Deborah Lorraine.