Reform celebrate another by-election win over Labour - 78% of vote

are celebrating another election victory after winning a council-by election. The party took a seat previously held by Labour in the Shelley ward of Ongar Town Council, in the Epping Forest District in Essex. The candidate received 352 votes while Labour's candidate received 100 votes.

Reform MP James Murdock said: "78% of the votes go to Reform in latest Essex by-election. Gain from Labour. Well done team." It follows local elections earlier this year in which Nigel Farage's Reform UK made sweeping gains, as well as winning the Parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby, previously a safe Labour seat. Reform picked up 10 councils and more than 600 council seats, and also won two mayoral elections.

A county council now run by will not fly a Pride flag this summer and will remove the Ukrainian flag from the chamber, the new council leader confirmed.

At the beginning of May, Reform swept to a local elections victory in Kent taking 57 of 81 council seats, wiping out a Conservative majority which had stood for almost 30 years.

On Thursday, councillors heard from the new leader of Kent County Council, Linden Kemkaran, at their annual general meeting at County Hall in Maidstone, Kent.

Ms Kemkaran, Kent's Reform leader, told the chamber her new administration had little time for "special interest groups" or the flags that represent them.

"The Union Jack, the flag of St George and the flag of Kent, they are the identity that we all share and it is that identity that we need to focus on," she said.

Her words were met with raucous applause and table thumping from the Reform benches, likened to a "political rally" by the council's opposition leader, Liberal Democrat Antony Hook.

"We are here to unite not divide and that's why we don't have much time for special interest groups and flags that represent special interest groups," added Ms Kemkaran.

The new Kent County Council leader also told the chamber she was looking to create a department of government efficiency (Doge) to root out problems in the council.

Opposition leader Mr Hook voiced fears that the Reform administration would be taking instructions from the national leaders of Reform UK.

Outside the chamber, he said: "It was really shocking to me that in a recent podcast the leader of Reform said that she had to sort of take instructions from Reform's national chairman.

"That's the sort of thing we've never heard at Kent County Council before. Under different administrations it's always been clear that policy is made in Kent by county councillors not taking instructions from national parties."

Concerns were also raised by opposition councillors about the future of environmental initiatives across the county.