12AUG

Reform holds Throckley on a cut share

1 min read

14:07UTC

Martin Evison held Throckley, Walbottle and Newburn for Reform UK on Newcastle City Council with 901 votes and 39.0%, down from 44% in May.

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PoliticsAssessed

Key takeaway

Reform held Throckley on 39.0%, five points below the share that won it the ward in May.

Martin Evison held Throckley, Walbottle and Newburn for Reform UK on Newcastle City Council on 27 August, polling 901 votes and 39.0% of those cast⁠¹. Reform first took the ward on 44% in May⁠².

Throckley sits on Newcastle's western edge, among former pit villages absorbed into the city. Defending a seat four months after winning it tests something different from the initial breakthrough, and this is not the party's first attempt: Reform held one of the four seats it contested successfully in early August.

The five-point fall from May is the number worth keeping. Comparing an all-out May poll with an August by-election flatters nobody, since turnout and candidate line-ups both change, but the direction travels with the party's national average. Reform is retaining its northern wards on fewer votes than it won them with, which leaves less margin the next time an opponent consolidates behind one candidate.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Reform UK's Martin Evison held onto his seat on Newcastle City Council, covering Throckley, Walbottle and Newburn, with 901 votes, 39.0% of the total. That is down from the 44% Reform won in the same ward in May, but still enough to keep the seat.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

Evison held Throckley with his vote share down to 39.0% from 44% in May, a fall in share without a loss of the seat.

That distinguishes gradual erosion, where support narrows but still clears the winning line, from the outright collapse seen in wards Reform has lost elsewhere this run.

Sources:PollCheck·Newcastle City Council

Mentions:Reform UK →Martin Evison →Norfolk →King's Lynn and West Norfolk →South Tyneside →

First Reported In

Update #17 · Reform's £4m arrived as cash, not crypto

PollCheck· 3 Sept 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

Reform wins three of ten by-elections

Throckley extends the pattern of Reform holding wards on reduced shares.

Occurred 6 Aug 2026

Read story →

This Event

Reform holds Throckley on a cut share

Reform is keeping the Newcastle seat it won in May, but on a noticeably smaller share of the vote.

Different Perspectives

Rhun ap Iorwerth / Welsh Government (Plaid Cymru)

Ap Iorwerth presented six priorities to the Senedd on 22 September without numeric targets or a named partner party, promising to work across the chamber where there is common ground. He says his government will be judged on results.

Michael Marra / Scottish Labour

Marra won the leadership on 19 September, and three days later his 17 MSPs backed Swinney's right-to-decide motion once their child-poverty amendment was written in. He says Scottish Labour's task is to tell voters what it stands for.

Andy Burnham / Labour Party

Burnham told conference in Liverpool on 29 September that Labour's next manifesto will commit to changing the electoral system, and invited every party into a National Commission on Electoral Reform. He has not named a replacement system, and no chair or remit has been published.

Conservative Party (frontbench peers and Kemi Badenoch)

Conservative frontbench peers argued against retrospective rules at the Lords Second Reading on 14 September, a position that protects gifts made before any cap. Kemi Badenoch rejected Burnham's electoral reform commission on 2 October, accusing him of using it to entrench the left.

Reform UK

Reform denied wrongdoing after the Channel 4 News programme, called the sting a hoax by climate activists and said it would cooperate with the Metropolitan Police. In the same month it announced £36m gifts from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne.

Steff Aquarone / Liberal Democrats (North Norfolk)

Aquarone told Rayner in the Commons on 7 September that North Norfolk District Council had spent money preparing for a reorganisation the Government has now withdrawn. He puts the cost of the cancelled merger on districts in the four areas.