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UK Local Elections 2026
3SEP

Labour crumbles in two more wards

1 min read
12:41UTC

On the same night Reform lost Old Catton, the Conservatives gained Dereham Toftwood and the Greens gained Fletton and Woodston, both from Labour, with Reform holding second in each.

← Back to Reform's £4m arrived as cash, not cryptoJump to analysis ↓
PoliticsDeveloping
Key takeaway

Conservatives and Greens took two more seats from Labour, which lost ground in all three 16 July by-elections.

The Conservatives gained Dereham Toftwood on Breckland council from Labour on 16 July 2026, with Reform UK a strong new second on 36.9% and Labour's share down more than 35 points 1. On the same night the Green Party gained Fletton and Woodston on Peterborough City Council, also from Labour, with Reform again holding second on 29.7% 2.

The Fletton and Woodston seat fell vacant after a Labour councillor quit alleging "sustained bullying" over her push for closed-circuit television (CCTV) in taxis 3. Neither result unseated Reform; both unseated Labour, the same pattern visible in Reform's own loss at Old Catton the same evening.

Read across the three contests, Reform lost only where it was defending its own seat and grew where it attacked a Labour incumbent. Labour lost in all three. Burnham's party changed leaders this month to relieve exactly this pressure , and the first by-elections of his premiership deepened it instead.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Two more council by-elections on 16 July went badly for Labour. The Conservatives took Dereham Toftwood from Labour in Norfolk, and the Green Party took Fletton and Woodston from Labour in Peterborough. Reform UK came second in both. A council by-election fills one vacant seat; it does not change who governs nationally. But a run of losses like this in a single day suggests Labour's support has weakened at the local level too, beyond what the national opinion polls show.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

An unnamed Labour councillor's complaint of 'sustained bullying' in Peterborough points to local party organisation problems compounding the national polling slide, a structural weakness in activist bases Labour has not defended seriously since boundary changes, rather than a single cause.

Reform UK holding second place in both contests despite Labour's collapse shows the party's roughly 40 cumulative councillor losses nationally by early July have not yet cost it its position as the default opposition-to-Labour vote in these wards.

Sources:Bin The Labour Party
Mentions:Peterborough City Council →Green Party →Reform UK →Old Catton →Norfolk →Institute for Government →Labour Party →
First Reported In

Update #13 · England's council map redrawn as five sue

Bin The Labour Party· 24 Jul 2026
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Causes and effects
This Event
Labour crumbles in two more wards
Labour, not Reform, was the consistent loser across all three of the 16 July by-elections.
Led to
Clacton's ballot paper splits the right four ways
The two wards where the anti-Reform vote stayed split show Reform holding second place, contrasting with Old Catton.
Occurred 17 Jul 2026
Read story →
Greens take a seat Reform came second in
Continues the mid-July pattern of opposition parties consolidating against Reform and Labour incumbents in council by-elections.
Occurred 6 Aug 2026
Read story →
Different Perspectives
Scottish Labour members
Scottish Labour members
Scottish Labour's published leadership nominations show 33 MPs and MSPs backing Michael Marra against 12 for Joe Fagan, with members voting until 17 September and a result on 19 September. Elected members do not cast the ballot, so the nomination gap measures the parliamentary party rather than the membership that will decide it.
Electoral Commission
Electoral Commission
The Electoral Commission published its Q2 2026 donations register on 3 September, recording Reform UK's £5.44m as the highest of any party and Ben Delo's £4m as two cash gifts. The register records a donation's form and amount, not the origin of a donor's wealth, so a cash gift shows the same as any other.
Reform UK
Reform UK
Danny Kruger, Reform UK's MP for East Wiltshire, called the Bill "a flagrantly partisan attempt to kneecap Reform UK" during the 2 September debate, objecting to its trade-union exemption. Reform enters its Birmingham conference having topped Q2's donor register at £5.44m, £4m of it in cash from Ben Delo, a form the new ban does not reach.
Ian Davidson, Acting Returning Officer for Clacton
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.
Labour Party
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
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.