23AUG

Lib Dems take Almondbury off Reform

1 min read

19:09UTC

Almondbury changed hands on 13 August, with the Liberal Democrats on 43.9% and Reform UK, which won the ward in May, down to 27.0%.

← Back to Reform loses three wards, wins Clacton Jump to analysis ↓

PoliticsAssessed

Key takeaway

Reform UK's Almondbury share fell ten points on May and the Liberal Democrats took the seat.

The Liberal Democrats gained Almondbury on Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council from Reform UK on Thursday 13 August, polling 43.9% against Reform's 27.0% ¹. Reform had won the same West Yorkshire ward on 7 May.

Kirklees is the authority covering Huddersfield, and Almondbury is one of its wards. A council by-election fills a single vacancy between the four-yearly whole-council rounds, on a turnout that in August runs well below the all-out turnout that produced the seat in the first place. This was the first of the wards Reform took in May to come back round with opponents on the paper.

Between the two contests Reform's share dropped 10.0 points and the Liberal Democrats added 14.5 ². Neither movement is large in absolute votes at this scale, and the direction is what carries. A week earlier the Green Party had gained a Reigate and Banstead seat with Reform second , and on 11 August Reform's polling average stood at 24% . One ward on an August turnout settles none of that, and Kirklees only becomes evidence once the wards behind it are counted too.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Almondbury is a ward on Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council in West Yorkshire. Reform UK won the seat outright on 7 May, part of a wider set of council elections that year, but lost it to the Liberal Democrats just over three months later. When any party wins a council seat for the first time, its new councillor has not yet had time to build a reputation with local residents through casework and constituency work. That normally protective effect of incumbency simply has not had time to develop after only a few months in office.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

A council seat won for the first time in May by a party with no prior presence there carries no accumulated casework record, local profile or activist base to defend it if a vacancy arises again quickly.

Incumbency protection normally cushions a sitting party against a single bad result, but that protection takes more than a few months to build. That is one reason a seat won outright in May can be lost again by August.

What could happen next?

Meaning
A reversal this fast, just over three months, is the shortest cycle of any result in this set and suggests new Reform councillors are especially exposed at their first test.

Sources:Liberal Democrat Voice·Kirklees Council

Mentions:Liberal Democrats →Reform UK →European Parliament →Brexit →Parliament →Green Party →UKIP →

First Reported In

Update #16 · Reform loses three wards, wins Clacton

Liberal Democrat Voice· 23 Aug 2026

Read original →

Causes and effects

Caused by

Reform wins three of ten by-elections

The early-August pattern of Reform gains and holds contrasts with Almondbury's loss the following week.

Occurred 6 Aug 2026

Read story →

This Event

Lib Dems take Almondbury off Reform

Reform UK lost the first of the May-won wards it was asked to defend against opponents who actually stood.

Different Perspectives

Ian Davidson, Acting Returning Officer for Clacton

Davidson's office printed a 90cm ballot paper for the record 34-candidate field, with nothing in electoral law capping candidate numbers or the £500 deposit each pays. He expects the paper's size to raise printing costs and slow the count into the early hours, a strain that follows from the major parties' boycott, not from turnout.

Scottish Labour members

Members now choose between Michael Marra and Joe Fagan after Monica Lennon fell one MP nomination short of the three-MP, three-MSP threshold, a bar set by MPs and union officials rather than the wider membership. Whoever wins takes office having faced only one rival on the members' ballot.

Labour Party

Labour gained Penistone East from Reform on 20 August but lost Harraby South to Reform the same night, a wash that undercuts any claim of momentum. The party can point to beating Reform in a genuinely fought contest, but not to a pattern running only in its favour.

Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats took two of Reform's May wards, Almondbury on 13 August and St Neots Eynesbury on 20 August, the latter on a 29.8-point rise in their own vote share. Both results let the party claim it is the beneficiary when voters turn against Reform, not Labour or the Conservatives.

Reform UK

Reform UK can point to winning Clacton unopposed by the other major parties and to taking Harraby South from Labour, a ward it had never previously contested. That gives the party two results to cite even as three previously held wards changed hands elsewhere in August.

Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin's John O'Dowd ruled out a Stormont walkout on 11 August despite calling the DUP increasingly difficult to work with, closing a question Conor Murphy had left open a fortnight earlier. Only Sinn Féin or the DUP can collapse the joint First Minister office, so the denial gives up the party's own leverage in budget talks.