Also elected as an independent was Ahzar Ali, who was dropped as Labour’s candidate for the Rochdale by-election last year after the Mail on Sunday revealed he had said Israel “allowed” the October 7 attacks to happen to get a “green light to do whatever they bloody want”. The party eventually withdrew support for him after further comments came to light.
Another independent, Michael Lavalette, a 62-year-old academic, refused to condemn Hamas as a terrorist organisation.
The Daily Telegraph reported that at a hustings ahead of last year’s general election, where he stood as an independent candidate for Preston, he was asked whether he would denounce Hamas as a terrorist organisation “regardless of your views” on Gaza.
He responded: “No… I think when your land is occupied, and when it has been for 76 years, people have the right to resist.
“They had the right to resist in the Second World War, the French resistance, the Yugoslavian resistance, the Italian resistance, the Greek resistance. And the Palestinians have the right to fight against their own dispossession.”
Also in Lancashire, Gordon Birtwistle – a former MP who the JC revealed had said in a hustings during the general election campaign that he hadn’t called Israel’s military campaign in Gaza a “genocide” because “Jewish groups” had previously tried to get him kicked out of the Liberal Democrats – was defeated by Reform UK.
Elsewhere, Nigel Farage’s party defeated Labour by six votes in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election, adding to their ranks on Parliament’s green benches.
Nigel Faragecelebrates as Reform Party candidate Sarah Pochin winning the Runcorn and Helsby by-election by six votes. (Photo by Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)Getty Images
“Victory in Runcorn & Helsby proves we are now the opposition party to this Labour government”, Reform UK’s leader jubilantly posted on X.
The party also won its first Metro Mayor: former Conservative MP and education minister Dame Andrea Jenkyns was victorious in Greater Lincolnshire. The party came a close second in the elections in the West of England, Doncaster and North Tyneside, which were won by Labour.
At the time of writing, as well as Lancashire, they had gained control of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and Durham County Councils.
Reform UK victories also meant that the Conservatives lost control of Hertfordshire County council.
However, the Conservatives were able to win the newly created Mayoralty of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
Their candidate was the former Peterborough MP Paul Bristow who lost his seat at the general election.
Bristow was forced to apologise in 2023 after it was revealed that he’d hired a former Labour councillor who shared posts about “Nazi-Zionists” and “British MPs working for Israel” – but he refused to sack him.
He explained why in an opinion piece for the JC.
Bristow was also sacked as a ministerial aide after calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in October 2023, against the then-Conservative government’s position.
A Downing Street spokesman said at the time: "Paul Bristow has been asked to leave his post in government following comments that were not consistent with the principles of collective responsibility."
