3SEP

Reform holds Throckley on a cut share

1 min read

12:41UTC

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.

← Back to Reform's £4m arrived as cash, not crypto Jump to analysis ↓

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 cast ¹. Reform first took the ward on 44% in May ².

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

Read original →

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

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

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

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

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 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.