Labour has suffered a surprise by-election defeat in west London amid ongoing anger over council tax increases.
Independent Theo Dennison, who previously worked for George Galloway’s parliamentary office, won the Syon and Brentford Lock seat on Hounslow Council by just 12 votes following the poll on Thursday.
Mr Dennison served as a Labour councillor in the borough from 2010 to 2022, but quit the party after disagreements with the leadership.
He ran his independent campaign against raising council tax and cutting the reduction scheme for the lowest income residents.
A 5% increase in April means the average Band D home in Hounslow will pay over £2,000 a year in council tax for the first time.
The by-election was called after Labour councillor Balraj Sarai was forced to resign for missing meetings.
He attended just three council meetings he was due to be present at last year despite picking up an allowance of over £12,000.
Mr won Dennison with 615 votes to Labour’s 603. The Green Party came in second with 218 votes. Turnout was just 21%.
Mr Galloway tweeted: "Congratulations to the new councillor for Hounslow, my former parliamentary staffer Theo Dennison. Congratulations my good friend."
Elsewhere in the borough, Labour comfortably retained the Brentford East ward seat.
But by-election saw the party lose almost 15% of its previous vote share and Reform stormed into second place winning 22% of the vote.
In Barnet the Tories successfully defended the Finchley Church End ward by-election.
It comes after Labour last week lost a central London by-election to the Tories.
Publican and Craft Beer Co founder Martin Hayes, who is described as a “pro-nightlife, pro-hospitality, pro-pub voice”, won the Vincent Square ward seat on Westminster Council for the Conservatives on February 27.
Labour saw its vote share drop almost 11 points, forcing the party into second place. Nigel Farage’s Reform UK came third the poll last week with 9.6% of the vote, ahead of the Liberal Democrats, Greens and Christian People’s Alliance.
