The Liberal Democrats secured a decisive victory in the Bridport ward by-election on Thursday 21 May, comfortably holding the seat on Dorset Council while also winning the contest for Bridport Town Council’s West Bay ward.
In the Dorset Council election, Liberal Democrat candidate Paddy Mooney topped the poll with 2,190 votes, winning the seat by a substantial margin. Reform UK’s Jason Holt came second with 1,164 votes, while Green Party candidate Kelvin Charles Clayton secured 1,011 votes. Conservative candidate Una Mary Christopher finished fourth with 656 votes.
The result will be viewed as another strong performance for the Liberal Democrats in West Dorset, an area where the party has built significant local support in recent years. The sizeable gap between the winning candidate and Reform UK also highlights the challenge facing Nigel Farage’s party in translating national media attention into consistent success at local level in Dorset.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives continue to struggle in parts of the county, with their candidate finishing a distant fourth despite the party previously enjoying strong support in many rural Dorset communities. The Greens, however, demonstrated a growing base of support by surpassing the 1,000 vote mark.
Voter turnout in the Dorset Council by-election stood at 42.62%, reflecting moderate engagement in what was a closely watched local contest.
In the simultaneous election for the West Bay ward on Bridport Town Council, Liberal Democrat Neil Barnes was elected with 359 votes, comfortably ahead of independent candidate Josef Daniel Davies-Coates, who received 83 votes. Turnout for the town council election was slightly higher at 48.9%.
Taken together, the results reinforce the Liberal Democrats’ continuing dominance in Bridport and suggest that, despite growing competition from Reform UK and the Greens, the party remains firmly entrenched as the leading political force in the area.
