WALES’ first elected Reform UK councillor has claimed his council by-election victory means no Labour seat in the country is safe.
Stuart Keyte won the Trevethin and Penygarn seat on Labour dominated Torfaen Borough Council in the election called following the resignation of a councillor from the ruling group which retains a majority of 17.
The former army major, who won the seat from Labour by nearly 200 votes, said: “I would imagine there isn’t a Labour councillor, Assembly Member or MP who thinks their seat is safe if Trevethin and Penygarn is no longer a safe seat and perhaps then we can have a realisation councillors, AMs and MPs are supposed to be servants not the bosses, they are not the masters supposed to impose an ideology.”
Though the February 13 by-election is the first time Reform, which was rebranded from leader Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party, has won a seat at an election in Wales the new councillor will join an established group at the Civic Centre in Pontypool as three previously independent councillors joined Reform in August last year.
Its council group leader David Thomas hit the headlines on the eve of the by-election when Reform denied crude songs, posted online from more than a decade ago, and credited to him, and others, and linked to a record label he ran had been composed by Cllr Thomas.
The Labour leader of Torfaen council, Anthony Hunt, said Cllr Thomas should apologise and Labour MP for neighbouring Monmouthshire Catherine Fookes called for him to resign.
On the day of the election Cllr Thomas, and his two fellow Reform councillors were embroiled in a row over the opening of a Lidl supermarket in their Llantarnam ward in Cwmbran earlier in the week. The supermarket said there hadn’t been an official opening.
Cllr Keyte said he had no concerns about the row over the ‘happy hardcore’ dance tracks credited to his council group leader. He said: “It’s not my type of music I’m more of a classical music type. It’s not something that concerns me.
“I take it for what it is, I believe it’s a smear campaign,” said the new councillor who added he had been “too focused” on his campaign to raise it with Cllr Thomas, who has been a prominent supporter in the by-election.
He added: “It didn’t seem to be an issue when Mr Thomas was a Labour councillor.”
He also said it is “farcical” to suggest his colleagues would have attended a supermarket opening with their own scissors and ribbon and for staff to have posed for photographs with them.
The semi-retired 64-year-old, who has been a volunteer with the Citizens Advice Service in Cwmbran and in Pretoria in South Africa, said he had “no doubt” his victory is a signal of potential further success in Wales, with the party targeting elections to the expanded Senedd next year.
He credited the 457 vote victory to “hard work put in by Reform members” and said: “Also I believe the frustration of residents of Pontypool they see things slowly, slowly decaying around them.
“They are looking for a change in support from somebody other than Labour or any other established parties for that matter.”
Cllr Keyte, who lives in Wainfelin, Pontypool said as a councillor he wants to “get back to basics and see the place cleaned up, fences put back up and get a police presence.”
Labour won both Trevethin and Penygarn seats at the 2022 local government elections, with the Conservatives the only other party standing. Its candidate finished 359 votes behind the second placed Labour councillor.
Turnout in 2022 was 23 per cent which is slightly below the 24.7 per cent of the electorate who voted in the by-election.
Trevethin and Penygarn by-election full result
- Stuart Keyte, Reform UK, 457 elected
- Toniann Phillips, Welsh Labour 259
- Catherine Ann Howells, Independent 117
- Louise Shepphard, Independent 114
- Tony Clark, Green Party 25.
The Welsh Conservatives won a by-election, also held on February, 13 to fill the New Inn Upper vacancy on Pontypool Community Council.
It was also called due to the resignation of former Labour councillor Sue Malsom.
New Inn, Upper by-election full result
- Stephen John Senior, Welsh Conservatives 225 elected
- Sarah Evans, Welsh Labour 166
