Labour held on to one of its safest seats in the East Brighton by-election tonight (Thursday 18 October).
Chaun Wilson, a member of the party executive in Brighton and Hove, topped the poll with 1,596 votes.
She becomes a member of Brighton and Hove City Council in place of Craig Turton, who stood down because of ill health.
Joe Miller, the 18-year-old Conservative candidate, came second with 531 votes and the Greens’ Carlie Goldsmith came third with 456 votes.
Councillor Wilson joins fellow Labour members Warren Morgan and Gill Mitchell, the Labour group leader, in representing East Brighton on the council.
She said: “I would like to thank the people in East Brighton. They’ve made a vote for common sense and I’m really looking forward to working in the area.
“I’d also like to thank my colleagues in the party for all their hard work.”
She has worked in private and voluntary sector housing and dealt with homelessness and said that she was interested in issues such as inequality, discrimination and poverty.
She described herself as passionate about LGBT issues and inequalities of youth and said that she liked community engagement and involvement.
Former Brighton Pavilion Labour MP David Lepper was among the party members at the count celebrating the result.
Simon Kirby, the Conservative MP for Brighton Kemptown, went along to support Mr Miller.
The full result was
- Chaun Wilson, Labour, 1,596 votes
- Joe Miller, Conservative, 531 votes
- Carlie Goldsmith, Green, 456 votes
- Sabiha Choudhury, UKIP, 148 votes
- Dominic Sokalski, Liberal Democrat, 59 votes
- Jon Redford, Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts, 55 votes
The turnout was 26.21 per cent with 2,857 people voting. There were 1,105 postal votes and 12 spoilt ballot papers.
A very good result for UKIPs Sabiha Choudhury – running in the ward for the very first time and without the campaigning resources of labour/cons/greens.
How can anyone but a crazed UKIP fanatic describe 148 votes (just 5%)as a good result?
Never happier than when the Greens get slaughtered at the polls;
We need to get rid of this spiteful bunch of Marxist loons as soon as possible
This is a safe Labour seat so it is premature to draw any national conclusions from this result. What is notable is that only 26 per cent of the registered voters bothered to turn out on a reasonably mild autumn day. Three quarters of the people could not be bothered to stroll down to the polling station and take a few minutes to vote! I suspect that the November election for Police Commissioner will produce an even worse turn-out.Back in the 1950s over eighty per cent of the population voted in national elections and up to sixty percent in local contests.More civic education in schools , please and SOMEBODY has to get unemployed people to participate in the democratic process.
What is depressing is that only 26 per cent of the registered
electorate bothered to turn out! After it, there was no snow and ice yesterday!
I think most people were fed up with the fraud and lies of the government to feel there was any point in voting.
Jim, UKIP will certainly be trying to get more people involved/engaged – LabConGrn have failed to do so, there is no reason to think that will change.
Politics has been reduced to Cameron, Clegg, Milliband – local counts for pretty much nothing. Greens are more interested in solar panels and cycle lanes than people.
UKIPs interest is in giving people back control of their lives – not in controlling people lives as liblabcongrn are…