Tories win seats from Reform at Essex by-elections

The Conservatives have won two council seats in by-elections held in Essex on Thursday.

Danielle Belton won more than half of the votes cast as she took the Sweyne Park and Grange seat on Rochford District Council.

She was leader of the council until she lost her seat on 7 May, but she will return to the council chamber in opposition to the Reform UK-led administration.

Meanwhile, her husband Stuart Belton won the Rayleigh West seat on Essex County Council, with Reform pushed into third place behind the Liberal Democrats.

"I was not predicting that kind of victory," Belton told the BBC.

"It sends a message. This area is not prepared to be used as a stepping stone for opportunist Reform members."

Belton lost her previous council seat of Hockley and Ashingdon in May to Reform by just 26 votes.

But she picked up 56% of the votes on Thursday, with a turnout of 37% - which is unusually high for a by-election.

The losses for Reform will not change the balance of power at either authority.

Reform has a majority on Essex County Council with 52 members.

The party is expected to remain as a minority administration in Rochford as it is still the largest party with 12 out of the 39 council seats.

Belton said: "I'm quite comfortable sitting in opposition and scrutinising the decisions they are going to try and make."

He was accused of making racist and Islamophobic posts on social media by campaign group Hope Not Hate. He denied being racist when approached by the Daily Mirror newspaper.

Peter Harris, the Reform leader at Essex County Council, was asked last month if it was a mistake to have selected Prior.

"It looks like it doesn't it. I don't know the detail. But yes extremely disappointing," he told the BBC.

Fifteen miles away, the Liberal Democrats won a third by-election, retaining the seat of Springfield on Essex County Council.

Richard Lee will pick up the baton from long-serving Lib Dem councillor Mike Mackrory, who died suddenly in April.