00:00And I therefore do declare that William Burville has been duly elected as councillor for the ward.
00:07Congratulations.
00:10Decades of Tory dominance at an end in a Medway Council seat that has been blue for nearly 30 years.
00:19For weeks, campaigners have been out in the rural communities of Cuxton, Hauling and Riverside,
00:27fighting a by-election sparked by the death of Conservative councillor Phil Filmer.
00:34But with a margin of more than 100 votes from their nearest electoral rivals,
00:40it was Reform UK that managed to secure victory, their third by-election win in the five towns.
00:48It is the heart of Conservative in Medway.
00:51They've had this world for over 20 years.
00:53This is a Conservative world.
00:55It is the heart of negative world, a crown jewel if you want.
00:58And Reform today has taken that from them.
01:00And that sends a very clear message that no seat will be safe from reform in Medway.
01:04Turnout for this by-election was unusually high.
01:08More than 37% of the electorate cast their ballots.
01:13That's more than it was back in 2023.
01:16An election where the Green Party were less than 50 votes away from getting their first councillor in Medway.
01:24Having now come third in this more recent race, by quite some distance,
01:29is this a sign the party is losing steam?
01:33So I think there is a big reform growth, which we recognised from last year in the by-election.
01:39So we're not surprised.
01:41It was really how many people came out.
01:46We're all surprised, aren't we?
01:47The turnout was incredible for a by-election.
01:50And that was in reform's favour.
01:52And I think that aligns with the activity that the report had in the people.
01:56For Labour and the Liberal Democrats,
01:58Caxton and Hauling was always going to be an unlikely electoral prospect.
02:04But for the Conservatives, who still managed to get more than 700 votes,
02:09the loss will be much more bruising,
02:12especially with the local elections planned for next year across North Kent.
02:18Orly Leader at Medway Park.
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