Reform UK expected to take Paulsgrove in record win
Reform UK are hoping for a record win in the Portsmouth City Council by-election for Paulsgrove.
The new councillor for the Paulsgrove ward will be announced today following yesterday’s by-election - the first to be held in Portsmouth since 2008.
The seat became vacant following the resignation of former Portsmouth Independent Party (PIP) councillor Brian Madgwick.
The council currently has 42 seats: the Liberal Democrats hold 19, Labour nine, Reform UK six, the Conservatives four, PIP two, with one independent and one vacant seat.
A total of seven polling stations were set up across the ward.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service understands that turnout was reportedly high, with most votes cast towards the end of polling day.
Local election results for Paulsgrove over the last three years have seen PIP candidates elected with a comfortable majority.
In all three elections, the Conservatives came second with less than half the PIP vote, followed by Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
Conservative candidate Thomas Hoare said the election had been “tough” for the Conservatives, stating that the national party has “made mistakes” which they “are feeling locally”.
He spoke of a “reform surge” both in the ballot boxes and on the doorstep, stressing that residents “want someone to work for them”.
“We will come back to that, we will be the people's choice for that but it’s going to take time - at a local level we just need to keep working hard.”
The Local Democracy Reporting Service understands that Reform UK are in a comfortable position to win, with significant majorities indicated during the vote verification stage.
Councillor George Madgwick, leader of the Portsmouth Reform UK group, estimated that Reform UK has secured around 67 per cent of the vote - surpassing the record he set last year when he won with 64 per cent.