Labour's Terry Turner is back in politics after Kidsgrove by-election victory

LABOUR'S electoral resurgence has continued with victory in a council by-election – despite only 17 per cent of voters turning out.

Terry Turner easily won the vacant Kidsgrove seat on Newcastle Borough Council after polling more than twice as many votes as the other three candidates combined.

Labour had wrestled back control of the council last week after six years in opposition, as voters turned their backs on both Conservative and Liberal Democrat candidates when one-third of the authority's seats were up for grabs.

Now Mr Turner's victory has increased Labour's majority on the council to six. The by-election was called after jailed councillor Kyle-Noel Taylor was kicked off the authority in March.

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Twenty-year-old Taylor – who first won the seat as a Labour councillor before becoming an independent – was jailed for six months after being convicted of beating his ex-girlfriend. The victory means Labour now controls all 12 seats on the borough council in Kidsgrove.

Mr Turner, aged 64, of Mow Cop, said: "I think the national picture has played a part in the elections, but there have been local issues as well. People in Kidsgrove feel they have been neglected by the borough council in the last six years.

"The council has spent millions on the Jubilee2 leisure centre in Newcastle town centre, but I think it has only spent about £300 on Kidsgrove swimming pool."

Former Kidsgrove CAB chairman Mr Turner had previously served as a Labour councillor on Stoke-on-Trent City Council in the 1990s, and then Newcastle Borough Council, where he was chairman of finance under a previous Labour administration.

But after losing his Newchapel seat in 2002, Mr Turner spent a decade out of local politics.

He added: "I'm grateful people came out to vote for me. I'm going to fight to make sure the town gets its fair share of resources. I want to help improve the Galleys Bank estate, and the town centre.

"Labour has all the seats in Kidsgrove, so it will mean there will be a powerful voice."

Current Labour councillor Gareth Snell says Kidsgrove is a priority for the council's incoming Labour administration.

He said: "We always knew that in order to take control of the council we would need to win back the trust of the people of Kidsgrove."

Labour now has 33 seats on the borough council, with the Conservatives on 16 and the Liberal Democrats on 11.