Labour Hold Westbourne And Poets' Corner Seat
- Sarah Booker-Lewis LDR
- 19 hours ago
- 2 min read
Labour won the Westbourne and Poets’ Corner by-election to hold on to the seat on Brighton and Hove City Council.
Polling was close, with the Greens in second place and the Liberal Democrats coming in third, a dramatic change from party’s eighth place in the 2023 council elections.
Reform UK candidate Gary Farmer came fourth place, with twice as many votes as the Conservative candidate Tony Meadows.
The winner, Sam Parrott, said that she was slightly overwhelmed with the win but could not wait to get “stuck in” to her new role.
Councillor Parrott said:
“The key thing that I’m hoping to achieve for the ward is I really want to get to know the constituents, the people who live there, and to be able to represent them.
“My really big passions are around disability and violence against women and girls.”
Labour council leader Bella Sankey said that she was delighted with the result which bucked the trend of a hard night for Labour nationally.
The results were
Sam Parrott (Labour) 894 – elected
Geoff Shanks (Green) 685
Michael Wang (Liberal Democrat) 598
Gary Farmer (Reform UK) 258
Tony Meadows (Conservative) 129
Georgia McKinley-Fitch (Independents for Direct Democracy) 93
David Maples (Independent Socialist) 91
Keith Jago (Independent) 7
The turnout was 36.95 per cent with 2,759 votes cast from an electorate of 7,466. There were five spoiled ballot papers.
The seat became vacant after former Labour councillor Leslie Pumm resigned for health reasons.
In the 2023 Brighton and Hove elections Mr Pumm won the seat with 1,741 votes.
The result in May 2023 was as follows
Julie Anne Cattell (Labour) 1,911 – elected
Leslie Alan Pumm (Labour) 1,741 27 – elected
Renato Manuel Mendes Marques (Green) 743
Geoff Shanks (Green) 691
Michael Charles Bates (Conservative) 448
Mark Jonathan Clayton (Conservative) 421
James Verguson (Independent) 211
Geoff Date (Liberal Democrat) 208
Dave Hill (Trade Unionists and Socialist Coalition) 111
Patricia Ann Mountain (UK Independence Party) 65
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