Green Party beat Reform UK to win Kent by-election after councillor jailed
The race came down to the wire, with both candidates tied at 36% in the polls ahead of voting day
Reform UK has lost its first electoral test in Kent after their by-election candidate lost to the Green Party following the jailing of one of its councillors.
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The Green Party’s Rob Yates won the seat in Cliftonville, Thanet, with 2,068 votes, making up 39% of the vote, ahead of Marc Rattigan for Reform UK with 1,767 votes, making up 33%.
The race came down to the wire, with both candidates tied at 36% in the polls ahead of voting day, with Labour projected to be out of the running in third.
The by-election was triggered after ex-Reform UK councillor Daniel Taylor, of Ramsgate, Kent, was jailed for 12 months in February after admitting controlling and coercive behaviour towards his wife.
Following the victory, Mr Yates said: “This result shows that across Kent and across the country the Greens are the antidote to Reform.
“Twelve years ago Nigel Farage was parading down Cliftonville high street, and now we have turned it green.
“There is a huge appetite here to live with a politics of hope, empathy and local action, rather than a politics of division.”
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The 39-year-old offshore wind farmer, a Thanet District Council member, vowed to continue being a “community politician who represents everyone”.
Reacting to the loss of the by-election on Friday, a Reform UK spokesman said: “Marc and the team have run an incredible, positive and professional campaign in the midst of challenging circumstances.
“We’d like to thank voters for their support. The overriding message from this result is, vote Conservative, get Green.”
The Conservatives’ candidate Charlie Leys came third in the by-election, gaining 811 votes, which accounted for 15% of the vote.
The 36-year-old former Reform councillor was suspended from Reform after his arrest in June last year and expelled after he pleaded guilty to the crime in January.
Reform won control of Kent County Council (KCC) in May last year, securing 57 out of 81 seats, but is currently down to 47 after removing some of them.
Elsewhere Liberal Democrats make up 12 members, newly-established Restore Britain Kent group make up seven, Conservatives hold six seats, Greens now hold six following Mr Yates’s win and Labour have two.
In the Cliftonville seat last May, Reform UK won 40% of the vote, followed by Labour and the Conservatives behind them with 22% and 20% of the vote respectively.
On the campaign trail, Mr Yates was backed by former Green Party leader and the party’s first MP Caroline Lucas, as well as party leader Zack Polanski making an appearance on the eve of the election.