Report by Local Democracy Reporter – Jon Cooper
Derbyshire Reform UK councillors have been celebrating after their successful candidate in North East Derbyshire District Council’s by-election for the vacant Eckington South and Renishaw seat has helped tip the scales of power at the authority.
Reform UK’s Jamie Hodgson, who is also a Derbyshire County Councillor for Eckington and Coal Aston, has been formally announced as the newly-elected NE Derbyshire District Councillor for the Eckington South and Renishaw ward after he amassed a winning vote in the September 10 by-election which means the labour-led authority has lost its majority.
The Labour-led district council is now made up of 26 Labour councillors instead of 27, with 14 Conservative councillors, six Reform councillors, four NE Derbyshire Independents, two Independents, and one Green Party councillor.
This means Labour’s narrow majority over all the other parties combined has slipped in the council chamber with only 26 Labour councillors laid against a combined 27 councillors from the authority’s five other political groups which may influence the outcome of future voting on issues raised at Full Council meetings.
Labour NE Derbyshire District Council Leader, Nigel Barker, said: “We acknowledge the election result in Eckington South and Renishaw and respect the democratic mandate given by those who voted.
“However, we still believe Labour offers the best way forward for North East Derbyshire. We will listen carefully to the message residents have sent, but we still have an ambitious programme for North East Derbyshire and will continue to work hard for communities across the district.
“We congratulate Cllr Hodgson on his election and wish him well in representing the residents of the ward.”
Newly-crowned NE Derbyshire District Cllr Hodgson was elected with a thumping 426 votes, followed by Labour’s David Landall with 298, Conservative Philip Wheelhouse with 229, Independent Jackie Foster with 55, and the Green Party’s Hannah Court with 52.
The by-election for the vacant Eckington South and Renishaw seat involved a 23.19per cent turnout, according to NE Derbyshire District Council.
Cllr Hodgson joins five fellow Reform UK councillors at the district council including Cllr Stephen Reed, who is also Derbyshire County Council’s Deputy Leader, and former Conservative Carolyn Renwick, former Independent Mark Foster, and former NE Derbyshire Independents Jess Stokes and Heather Liggett who all defected to Reform UK.
Reform District Cllrs Renwick, Foster, Stokes and Liggett all have former Conservative ties and chose to leave their respective political parties in May to join Reform UK and Cllr Stephen Reed, who defected from the Conservatives in 2025, as the growing Reform UK group at the authority now boasts six councillors.
Ironically, District Cllr Mark Foster lost his county council seat in the May, 2025, election to Reform UK’s Jamie Hodgson but he has continued as a NE Derbyshire District Councillor representing Coal Aston.
And former county council Cabinet member Carolyn Renwick opted not to stand in the May, 2025, county elections but continued as a NE Derbyshire District Councillor representing Ridgeway and Marsh Lane.
Former Conservative Heather Liggett, representing Shirland, had joined a relatively newly-formed group at NE Derbyshire District Council known as the NE Derbyshire Independents in December, 2024, with three former Liberal Democrats and an Independent at that time before joining Reform UK in May.
Jess Stokes was elected to NE Derbyshire District Council in October, 2024, as a Conservative to represent Clay Cross North Ward, after she stood in a by-election for the vacant seat but later joined the NE Derbyshire Independents before her latest defection to Reform UK.
Cllr Stokes has been with three different political parties at the district council in less than two years.
NE Derbyshire District Council’s Labour Group still has a large and strong number of councillors at the authority exceeding any other individual group and it has only lost its majority by one councillor to a combined accumulative number of councillors drawn from as many as five other political groups.
Although the Labour Group will be disappointed that their candidate did not win the Eckington South and Renishaw by-election, Labour still has considerably more councillors at NE Derbyshire District Council when compared with each of the council’s five other political parties individually.
Reform UK also welcomed Amber Valley Borough Cllr Amanda Paget to its party at the end of April after she joined the growing number of Reform councillors on this local authority.
Cllr Paget was originally elected in 2023 as a Green Party councillor but chose to become a Conservative councillor in 2024 before joining Reform UK, in April, which has become her third political party in three years.
During the May local elections – not involving Derbyshire councils – Reform UK made major gains, Labour suffered heavy losses, and the Conservatives also suffered significant losses while the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party enjoyed some successes.
Chesterfield Borough Council did oversee two by-elections in May for two vacant previous Labour and Lib Dem seats for Staveley-North at the borough council and a vacant previous Lib Dem seat for Staveley Town Council’s Woodthorpe which were all taken by Reform UK candidates.
Reform UK Party Leader Nigel Farage hailed Cllr Hodgson’s NE Derbyshire District Council by-election victory alongside a separate Reform UK by-election victory this month at North Somerset Council for the vacant Hutton and Locking seat as ‘brilliant Reform wins’.
The Reform UK party claims Labour and the Conservatives have wrongly assumed they can rely on voters’ support arguing that voters have become fed up with higher taxes, uncontrolled immigration, declining public services, and being ignored by the mainstream parties.
