Labour win Litherland by-election after disgraced councillor resigns

Labour have won another council seat in Sefton following a by-election triggered by the resignation of disgraced former Sefton Mayor and councillor, Paul Tweed. The newly-elected councillor for Litherland is Julia Garner, which means Labour remain in comfortable control of Sefton Council with 49 seats; increasing their overall majority.

The Litherland ward seat was vacated last month when Tweed resigned after being convicted of making indecent images of children. Tweed was first elected to Sefton Council in 1992 and held a number of high ranking positions in the local authority between 2012 and 2015. He became Sefton's Mayor for the year 2008/09, attending numerous events as the borough's first citizen.

Tweed, 62 was initially charged with three counts of making indecent images of children and told police he had viewed the sick images "by accident when browsing pornography". He appeared before Wirral Magistrates' Court on September 25 this year where he pleaded guilty to the charges and later appeared for sentencing at Liverpool Magistrates' Court on November 6 where a further charge was added.

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When the ECHO first broke the story of Tweed's charges, Sefton's Labour group said it took "immediate action" to remove Tweed as a member after it became aware of the offences. However, despite Sefton Council asking Tweed to resign following his guilty pleas, he remained an elected member of the council, sitting as an Independent.

Almost a week after he pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children, Tweed resigned as an elected councillor. At the time, a Sefton Council spokesperson said: "We wrote to Mr Tweed asking him to resign in light of what has happened and we can confirm that we have received a letter of resignation. The vacancy is now being advertised.”

Tweed's resignation subsequently triggered a by-election and opened up a casual vacancy for the Litherland ward seat which was contested by six candidates. Polls opened yesterday (Thursday) at Linacre Bridge Community Hub and Netherton Park Estate, with the official results declared late last night.

South Sefton has been a Labour stronghold for the last 18 years with each ward seat being represented by Labour councillors, including the Litherland ward which covers Bootle and leads up to Seaforth and Litherland. The race to be Litherland's new councillor was closely contested between Labour and the Green Party.

Labour finally triumphed with a convincing 43.7% of the vote however, a closer analysis shows their vote share actually fell by more than 30%. This was largely due to the rise of the Green Party vote who increased their vote by more than 27% - achieving a total share of 34%.

Full results of the Litherland ward by-election in Sefton:

Julia Garner - Labour Party: 43.7% (-30.3)
Jack Colbert - Green Party: 34.0% (+27.1)
Darcy Iveson-Berkeley - Reform UK: 12.4% (New)
Katie Maria Burgess- Conservative and Unionist Party: 4.2% (-0.6)
lan Smith - Workers Party of Britain: 3.5% (New)
Conor Anthony O'Neill - Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition: 2.2% (New)