Labour regain St James ward by two votes

Labour regained the St James’s ward on Dudley Council after a nail-biting election count left the party with a lead of just two votes.

Caroline Reid won the seat she lost in May’s local election after a hotly contested by-election on October 29.

Cllr Reid polled 874 votes, beating Reform UK’s Chris Chivers into second place after he received 872 votes.

Sam Firmstone for The Conservative Party finished in third place with 317 votes while Restore Britain’s Tristian Owen was fourth with 159 votes.

The Green Party was last, Katherine Poole managed to gain just 79 votes.

The result was so close votes had to be recounted before a result was declared.

The turnout was 22.45 percent which was considerably less than in May’s election when 32.9 percent of those eligible to vote made their way to a polling station

The result does little to change the make up of Dudley Council’s 72-seat chamber, The Conservatives continue to be the largest single group with 27 councillors and Reform UK are the largest opposition group with 22 elected members.

Labour now has 16 councillors, the Liberal Democrats have four members of the authority, The Black Country Party has two seats and Restore Britain has one councillor.

Newly elected Cllr Reid will replace Reform UK’s Ivor Robinson, who stood down as a councillor for personal reasons in September, triggering the by-election.

In May’s election Reform UK received 1,630 votes while Labour bagged 727 votes.

Back in May there was no Restore Britain candidate and Reform may have been wounded by another party from the right of the political landscape standing in the election this time around.

Cllr Reid’s election means St James’s now has three Labour councillors in Dudley’s council chamber, the ward is also represented by Cllrs Asif Ahmed and Cathryn Bayton.