Featherstone: Labour holds Wakefield Council seat in by-election after death of veteran councillor

Scott Haslam was elected to represent the ward following the death of long-standing councillor Graham Isherwood.

Coun Haslam secured victory with just over 42% of the vote (832).

Liberal Democrat candidate Chistopher Howden came second with 548 votes, followed by Reform UK’s Waj Ali with 463.

Conservative Repe Ruzvidzo received 141 votes and the Green Party’s Alexander Wood 74.

The turn out was 15.9%.

The result means Labour continues to hold 56 out 63 council seats.

The Tories and the Lib Dems each hold three and there is one independent councillor.

Speaking shortly after the result was announced, Royal Mail worker Coun Haslam, who is also a member of Featherstone Town Council, paid tribute to councillor Isherwood.

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He said: “It wasn’t a nice set of circumstances to have to call a by-election.

“Because of how quickly it was called I didn’t have much time to settle in or plan.

“I was quite quickly thrown in at the deep end and had to run with it. It has been [a] quite an intense few weeks. It’s nice to get to the end and get the result.”

In 2023, Coun Isherwood was elected with 2,057 votes, 73% of votes cast in the ward.

It was the second-highest margin of victory out of 23 seats contested at the time.

Coun Haslam said: “Clearly the result was down on previous years because it’s a by-election, as you would expect, and Labour is now in central government.

“It’s been a long-standing Labour ward but that was not something I took for granted.

“I was elected onto the town council last year so I started to build a bit of a rapport with Featherstone people in that sense.

“I have strong roots in Featherstone. I live here, my mum’s from here and my grandmother lived in Featherstone for 92 years.

“I think that resonated with people.”

Coun Isherwood represented Featherstone on Wakefield Council and also served as a town councillor for more than 30 years.

Coun Haslam , a branch secretary for the Communication Workers Union (CWU), added: “I have some big shoes to fill. I am a size ten so that’s a good start.

“But it’s not about filling shoes for me.

“It’s about recognising what Graham has achieved in the past, in conjunction with councillors Maureen Tennant-King and Steve Vickers, and previous Labour councillors.

“It’s about standing in my own shoes and seeing what I can bring to Featherstone.”