First Reform councillor says no Labour seat safe

Wales' first elected Reform UK councillor has claimed his by-election victory means no Labour seat in the country is safe.

Stuart Keyte won the Trevethin and Penygarn seat on Labour-dominated Torfaen council.

The by-election was called following the resignation of a councillor from the ruling group, which retains a majority of 17.

"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," said the former army major, who won by nearly 200 votes.

"Perhaps then we can have a realisation that councillors, AMs and MPs are supposed to be servants not the bosses, they are not the masters supposed to impose an ideology."

The election, held on Thursday, was the first time Reform - rebranded from leader Nigel Farage's Brexit Party - had won a seat at an election in Wales.

But 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.

And the victory is in step with a trend towards success for the party in Wales, after it came second in 13 of the 32 Welsh constituencies at last summer's UK general election, securing 16.9% of the vote across Wales, compared to 5.4% in 2019 when it stood as the Brexit Party.

Its council group leader David Thomas hit the headlines on the eve of the by-election when Reform denied he had composed crude songs, posted online more than a decade ago, credited to him and others, and linked to a record label he ran.

Anthony Hunt, Labour leader of Torfaen council, said Mr Thomas should apologise and Labour MP for neighbouring Monmouthshire, Catherine Fookes, called for him to resign.

On the day of the election, Mr 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 had not been an official opening.

Mr 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."

The new councillor added he had been "too focused" on his campaign to raise it with Mr Thomas, who was 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 was "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 was a sign of potential further success in Wales, with the party targeting elections to the expanded Senedd next year.

He said people were "looking for a change in support from somebody other than Labour or any other established parties for that matter".

Mr 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.

Turnout in 2022 was 23%, which is slightly below the 24.7% of the electorate who voted in the by-election.

Meanwhile, the Welsh Conservatives won a by-election, also held on 13 February, to fill the New Inn Upper vacancy on Pontypool Community Council, called due to the resignation of former Labour councillor Sue Malsom.