By Ellie Gosley
Copyright walesonline
Reform has won its first seat on Cardiff Council after comfortably beating Labour in a by-election in Trowbridge. Edward Topham is the new Reform councillor for the ward after winning with a 461-vote majority. The by-election was triggered after Labour councillor Chris Lay stepped down after moving to England. Questions were raised about the councillor’s position after he made a social media post showing that he’d left Wales, but a spokesperson for the Labour group at Cardiff Council later provided clarified that Mr Lay moved after receiving a promotion in his day job and that he intended to step down. Labour fell to a disappointing third place in the result, with candidate Gary Bowen-Thomson winning 615 votes (21.3%), behind Lib Dems ‘ Chris Coggers’ 681 votes (23.6%). Never miss a Cardiff story by signing up to our daily newsletter here The loss for Labour comes as a bombshell poll released this week suggested that Labour could slump to its worst ever performance in a Senedd election . The polling, released by ITV Cymru Wales/Barn Cymru, suggests the party, which has been in power in Cardiff Bay for the 26 years of devolved politics, would get just 14% of the vote in May’s Senedd election. Plaid Cymru would become the largest party. The latest win for Reform is one of a number of successes for Nigel Farage’s party who have picked up a string of wins in Welsh council elections as they continue to poll highly ahead of the Senedd election next year. In August, Reform won two seats on Welsh councils on the same night. The party is also hoping to get its second member in the Senedd in the upcoming Caerphilly by-election. Mr Farage said they are “throwing everything at it” to try and win. The most recent poll for next year’s Senedd election puts Plaid and Reform UK almost equally matched with just 1% between them. In terms of seats, Plaid could take 38 of the 96 seats, with Reform UK in second with 37. Labour would be trailing in third with just 11. The Trowbridge by-election is the third that’s taken place in Cardiff so far this year. A by-election in Llanrumney for the seat of former council leader, Heather Joyce, in July resulted in a Labour hold for the ward. However, Labour suffered another loss in the by-election for Grangetown in August, which saw Labour losing a dominance it’d had for 13 years, after the victory of Green Party candidate Matt Youde. Here are the full results of the Trowbridge by-election: Get daily breaking news updates on your phone by joining our WhatsApp community here . We occasionally treat members to special offers, promotions and ads from us and our partners. See our Privacy Notice
