The Hereford Issue

From the perspective of Herefordshire Council's ruling coalition it would not be an exaggeration to call last Thursday's by-election result in Newton Farm a thrashing. The Conservative Party candidate Ann-Marie Probert won the seat comfortably with 282 votes, almost 100 more than her closest rival. What makes this result significant is that, despite their dominance across the county, the Conservatives have never represented the Newton Farm area since the council's formation in 1997. In fact, they've historically performed so poorly here that they have polled in last place positions in more than half of elections contested. During the May 2019 local elections, Tory candidate Jeremy Chapman again came last with just 43 votes and less than 8% of the vote share. Last week, Ann-Marie Probert claimed 42% of the vote. This should set alarm bells ringing for all coalition party councillors. Why? Because Ann-Marie won the election on the promise of fighting for a bypass referend