Downham Market went to the polls yesterday to elect a representative for Norfolk County Council, an election which almost didn’t happen. Reform topped the poll in town, garnering 39.4% of voters.
In Downham, 3,598 people turned out to mark their ballot paper, representing 42.1% of eligible voters in the town. This is up from 2,688 the last time that voters selected their preferred candidates for Norfolk County Council.
The results of the election are as follows.
Pat Gould for Reform UK got 1,418 votes (39.4%), a new entry since the last election.
Tony White for Conservatives, the previous winner, pulled in 686 votes (19.1%), down 33 points from 51.9% last time round.
Doug Dew from the Liberal Democrats got 594 votes, 16.5% of the vote share, down 7 points. Last time this party was in second place at 28.3%.
Joshua Osborne, the current Labour Borough councillor for Downham Old Town attracted 570 votes, 15.8% which puts his party up 2 points from 13.8% last time.
Pallavi Devulapalli, standing as an independent following a public expulsion from the Green Party garnered 330 votes (9.2%) putting her in last place.
Norfolk County Council is left in “no overall control”, meaning no one party has a majority to control the body. Reform won 40 seats out of a total of 84. Liberal Democrats are second place on 13 seats, shortly followed by Greens with 12 seats, Conservatives on 8, Labour and Independents on 1 each, and a Great Yarmouth specific party with 9 seats from that area.
Reform has the most number of seats, but not enough to assume automatic control of the council. Reform may be able to form minority control if it has support from other parties in order to ensure they can win important votes like setting a balanced budget. Time will tell whether Reform and Rupert Lowe’s band of Restore Party adjacent ‘Gt. Yarmouth First’ party members can work together.
Across Norfolk the Liberal Democrats and Green Party gained seats while Conservatives and Labour faced heavy losses.
There are fears this political reshape may have an impact on the ‘local government reorganisation’ our county is undergoing, where current district and county councils are being replaced by 3 unitary councils. Reform’s leader Farage has spoken out against the project, but the process is led by central government so isn’t likely to be stopped by the change in local leadership.
Nationally, the picture looks somewhat similar. Reform taking many wins. Labour, currently the party of government, facing heavy losses along with Conservatives. Greens taking up ground across the country notably in nearby Norwich but also across London, Manchester and other areas. Liberal Democrats also gaining some ground. Many people will consider these results a verdict on the Labour government, and many are likely to continue to question Startmer’s leadership of both his party and the country.
According to Sir John Curtice, the UK’s polling expert, Labour was often losing out to Green opposition more than just to Reform. While the Conservatives mostly lost out to Reform alone. The government will have to reflect on its strategy following these polls. Some in Labour are likely to say they need to focus on appealing to Reform ideals to win back support, whereas data from Sir Curtice suggesting the opposite may be effective.
