Labour candidate wins city by-election
LDRSLabour's Abbas Hussain has won a by-election for a seat on Nottingham City Council.
A by-election was held in the Leen Valley ward after Nadia Farhat, a former Labour councillor, was removed for failing to attend enough meetings.
She was first elected to the ward in 2023, but defected to stand independently just months later over former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's stance on the conflict in Gaza.
Voting took place on Thursday, with an overall turnout of 31.8%, and the result was declared just after 00:00 BST on Friday at Loxley House.
Hussain acknowledged there were "ups and downs and issues we had to face within this campaign", but said his constituents backed the party.
"But the residents of Leen Valley placed their trust in the Labour Party because they know it is the party that unites all communities, regardless of background, ethnicity or where they come from," he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
An event on Labour's campaign trail had been marred by trouble in relation to the national party's response to the conflict under Sir Keir.
Tensions boiled over and a protest was held at an event in Bobbers Mill, which had been attended by Lincoln MP and minister for intergovernmental relations and European relations, Hamish Falconer.
The Nottingham People's Alliance, which is made up of a number of Labour defectors who quit the group, came second.
Kirsty L Jones, the group's leader, speaking on behalf of candidate Parveen Begum, said there had been "a really positive response on the doorstep".
"So many people who didn't normally vote said they would want to vote for a local independent party like us, and be part of building it," she said.
"The fact we were only slightly under 200 votes behind them for a brand new party shows there was a huge appetite in Leen Valley for our local socialist-democratic party.
"I think the electorate was really disappointed in Labour for many reasons."
Results in full
- Abbas Hussain, Labour: 689
- Parveen Begum, Nottingham People's Alliance: 523
- Stuart Andrew Frost, Reform UK: 410
- Hugh Mc Guinness, Green Party: 378
- Gail Janise Stancliffe, Conservative: 189
- Liz Morgan-Danvers, Liberal Democrats: 68
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