![\"Reform](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0_Reform-celebrate-victory-in-Balderstone-and-Kirkholt-council-by-election-in-Rochdale.jpg\")
Reform celebrate victory in Balderstone and Kirkholt council by-election in Rochdale(Image: LDRS)<\/p>\nNigel Farage’s party were victorious in a ward that had been a Labour stronghold for years<\/p>\n
02:08, 02 May 2025Updated 04:10, 02 May 2025<\/p>\n
Reform celebrate victory in Balderstone and Kirkholt council by-election in Rochdale(Image: LDRS)<\/p>\n
Reform has given Labour a \u2018bloody nose\u2019 after winning the council by-election in Rochdale<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jordan Tarrant-Short is now Reform\u2019s second elected Greater Manchester councillor after taking the Balderstone and Kirkholt seat. Coun Tarrant-Short bested the six other candidates, taking 766 votes out of 2,362 – 142 more than Labour<\/a>\u2019s runner up, Leanne Greenwood.<\/p>\n Speaking after his victory, the newly elected Coun Tarrant-Short said: \u201cEcstatic is how I feel.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is an amazing win and it really shows the political apathy in the area. I can\u2019t wait to start working with the people of Balderstone and Kirkholt.<\/p>\n “I think people are fed up with the two main parties and they wanted a different choice. Reform is the choice for the normal working class people.<\/p>\n \u201cThis seat has been one of the safest for Labour in the past 50 years, so for me winning this is a real bloody nose for them.\u201d<\/p>\n The newly elected councillor believes that both him and Allan Hopwood, who won the Longdendale<\/a> council by-election in Tameside<\/a> last month, will be the first of many Reform politicians in the city-region.<\/p>\n Tension was in the air at the count in Kirkholt Community Church. There were accusations of \u2018skullduggery\u2019 and calls for a full recount, but the gap in votes between Reform and the other parties muted those shouts.<\/p>\n In the election build up, there was a strong sense that the winds of change were coming to the ward, which has been a happy hunting ground for Labour in recent years.<\/p>\n After Elsie Blundell decided to resign following her return from maternity leave to focus on her new role as Heywood<\/a> and Middleton<\/a> MP, the Workers Party and Reform were initially seen as Labour\u2019s closest rivals.<\/p>\n That turned out to be true as they took the top three spots on the night. But it was Reform who won claimed victory to take the vacant seat on the council.<\/p>\n It was a miserable night for Labour, who felt the hit from the Labour government\u2019s drop in popularity. As the votes came in, the reds present on the night gave the look of tired inevitability and acceptance that defeat was coming.<\/p>\n Following the result, current Balderstone and Kirkholt councillor and cabinet member, Coun Danny Meredith said: \u201cUnfortunately, we didn\u2019t win this evening. It was a close run fight between ourselves and Reform.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will continue to work for the residents of Balderstone and Kirkholt. Congratulations to the new councillor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigel Farage’s party were victorious in a ward that had been a Labour stronghold for years 02:08, 02…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[34101,748,393,4884,34100,10751,2465,285,1170,1171,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-67402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-balderstone","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-kirkholt","13":"tag-local-elections","14":"tag-manchester","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-rochdale","17":"tag-rochdale-council","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114436205780030746","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Jordan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0_Jordan-Tarrant-Short-Reform-councillor-for-Balderstone-and-Kirkholt-Rochdale.jpg\")
Jordan Tarrant-Short, Reform councillor for Balderstone and Kirkholt, Rochdale(Image: LDRS)<\/p>\n![\"Polling](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0_Polling-station-and-counting-hall-for-the-by-election-Kirkholt-Community-Church.jpg\")
Polling station and counting hall for the by-election, Kirkholt Community Church(Image: LDRS)<\/p>\n