{"id":14948,"date":"2026-08-14T19:35:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T16:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/?p=14948"},"modified":"2026-08-14T19:35:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T16:35:41","slug":"labours-burnham-suffers-by-election-defeat-hours-after-farage-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/labours-burnham-suffers-by-election-defeat-hours-after-farage-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour’s Burnham Suffers By-Election Defeat Hours After Farage Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to George Bunn<\/strong> writing in GB News<\/em>, the Liberal Democrats secured victories in Devon and Yorkshire, providing a much-needed boost for Sir Ed Davey’s<\/strong> party after languishing behind Reform UK and the Greens in recent national polling.<\/p>\n

In East Devon, Liberal Democrat candidate Rhys Wallis<\/strong> won the Hointon St Michael’s ward with 727 votes, overturning what had been a Labour-held seat. The result represented a comfortable majority of 326 votes over Reform UK’s Humphrey Clemens<\/strong>, who finished second with 401 votes.<\/p>\n

The Conservative candidate Paul Carter<\/strong> received 326 votes, while Labour’s Jack Stacey<\/strong> managed only 55 votes, a humiliating fifth-place finish. Independent candidate Jo Fotheringham<\/strong> took 74 votes, with another independent, John Taylor<\/strong>, receiving just 19.<\/p>\n

The by-election saw a turnout of 28.7 per cent, with 1,602 ballot papers issued from an electorate of 5,583. No ballots were rejected.<\/p>\n

The former Labour councillor for the ward was Violet Bonetta<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Sir Ed Davey responded to the results with evident satisfaction, highlighting the geographic distance from Clacton where Nigel Farage<\/strong> secured a high-profile victory. The Liberal Democrat leader emphasized his party’s ability to defeat both Labour and Reform UK in different parts of the country.<\/p>\n

The twin defeats come at an inopportune moment for Labour, with Andy Burnham widely regarded as a potential future leadership contender. Local election reversals undermine the narrative of Labour’s electoral dominance and suggest voter dissatisfaction with the party’s performance in government.<\/p>\n

For the Liberal Democrats, the victories offer evidence that the party retains campaigning strength at the local level, even as national polling shows them struggling for attention in a crowded opposition landscape dominated by Reform UK and the Greens.<\/p>\n

With information from GB News<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Liberal Democrats won local by-elections in Devon and Yorkshire, defeating Labour and Reform UK and dealing a setback to Andy Burnham’s leadership ambitions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":14947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[5949,8505,11697,7151,941,8318,15,48],"nfg_topic":[134],"class_list":["post-14948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-andy-burnham","tag-by-elections","tag-east-devon","tag-greater-manchester","tag-labour-party","tag-liberal-democrats","tag-reform-uk","tag-united-kingdom","nfg_topic-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14948"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14956,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14948\/revisions\/14956"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14948"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=14948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}