{"id":1343,"date":"2025-02-07T16:37:37","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T16:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/?p=1343"},"modified":"2025-02-07T16:37:37","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T16:37:37","slug":"reform-uk-win-two-seats-in-rochester-east-and-warren-wood-and-labour-regains-one-in-gillingham-south","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/2025\/02\/07\/reform-uk-win-two-seats-in-rochester-east-and-warren-wood-and-labour-regains-one-in-gillingham-south\/","title":{"rendered":"Reform UK win two seats in Rochester East and Warren Wood and Labour regains one in Gillingham South"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Reform UK party members cheer after winning two seats on the Medway Council for the first time, while Labour has regained one following the by-election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reform councillors John Vye and David Finch will now represent Rochester East and Warren Wood after gaining 1,672 votes in total. In comparison, Labour and Co-operative Councillor Liubov Nestorova has taken the seat for Gillingham South with 706 votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chief Executive of Medway Council Richard Hicks announced the results after being asked to undertake a recount. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his speech alongside Vye, David Finch said: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been dreaming of a time when the English are sick to death of Labour and Tories.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;Rochester, that time has arrived.&#8221; <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>He stated in his interview that Reform UK will succeed, bring change and provide any stability or hope for the future, which he says the two main parties do not give.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nestorova said the results show the trust put into Labour to deliver for the people of Gillingham South.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>She added:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;This vote means everything, and I will work hard every day to ensure your voices are heard and your concerns are acted on.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;I am tired, yeah, but satisfied with what we&#8217;ve done and very excited about what we will do in Gillingham South moving forward.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Deputy Leader of the Council, Teresa Murray, emphasises being unsupportive of &#8220;right-wing views, racism, xenophobia, and scare-mongering&#8221; and states the same for inexperience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Leader of the Council Vince Mapel adds how a handful of votes can make or break the decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Joe Ryan reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"1080\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1920 \/ 1080;\" width=\"1920\" controls src=\"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/COUNT-2-2.mov\"><\/video><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reform UK party members cheer after winning two seats on the Medway Council for the first time, while Labour has regained one following the by-election. Reform councillors John Vye and David Finch will now represent Rochester East and Warren Wood after gaining 1,672 votes in total. In comparison, Labour and Co-operative Councillor Liubov Nestorova has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[223,3],"tags":[25,44,23],"class_list":["post-1343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kent","category-news","tag-kent","tag-medway","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1343"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1360,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1343\/revisions\/1360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}