Labour claim only they could win by-election

Labour keeps telling voters some variation of the following:

Only we can beat Reform!

The problem is they keep proving themselves wrong — most recently in a Kent County Council by-election:

Greens keep winning

The Greens secured an impressive victory over Reform in Kent — an area which had come to be seen as a Reform stronghold:

As it’s only been in Reform hands since May 2025, we guess it’s less of a ‘stronghold’ and more of a ‘limp-grip’ given that they’re already vacating their seats for the Greens.

In March this year, Labour List published the following:

Dame Emily Thornberry said the lesson from last time was that only Labour was in with a chance of beating Reform in Cliftonville.

She said:

“I’ve campaigned against Reform UK councils across the country, but this one in Kent is among the worst I’ve seen. They are hiking council tax when they said they wouldn’t, slashing vital services in Thanet, and the council leader was even caught screaming and swearing at her own colleagues.

“Labour came second here last time, so Cliftonville voters have a real chance to send Reform a message that Thanet won’t tolerate their public service cuts and shameless lies.”

In the end, Labour won fewer than half the votes that the Greens did. And if you look at how much vote share the Greens gained compared to how much everyone else lost, it looks like Zack Polanski’s party may be picking up votes from all of the other parties at this point.

In other words, if anyone should be arguing ‘only we can beat Reform‘, it’s the Greens. Except they shouldn’t say that; they should say ‘only the Greens are beating Reform‘, because that’s the reality we’re living in.

As Stats for Lefties added:

People reacted to the victory as follows:

Reform’s disgrace

The Kent by-election occurred because an ex-Reform councillor was jailed for abusing his wife:

Kent is one of Reform’s key councils; it’s also the party’s most chaotic.

Infamously, Kent had to suspend four Reform councillors after a “chaotic meeting was leaked”. As Joe Glenton wrote for the Canary:

A spokesperson for the far-right party said they’d brought Reform UK into disrepute.

Which is quite a gallant argument given Reform UK didn’t have much repute to start with. Anyway, here’s a group of dysregulated middle-aged toddlers having an incredibly puerile row:

Kent Council also drew criticism for telling a local parish they couldn’t put Christmas lights up because they had Union Jacks on them (flags which went up as part of the flag mania which sweeped the UK in 2025).

Labour — Changes

Gone are the days when only Labour and the Tories were viewed as serious political entities. Now, voters don’t want to hear ‘only we can win‘; they want to know why a political party winning will benefit them.

Labour have no good answers on that front, which is why they can now only come third (at best!).

Featured image via Barold