Lib Dems Easily Hold Three Council Seats in Surrey By-elections

Published on: 11 Jul, 2025
Updated on: 12 Jul, 2025

By Chris Caulfield, local democracy reporter and Martin Giles

In by-elections, Liberal Democrats have easily held on to two council seats in Woking, one at the borough council and one at Surrey County Council, vacated by MP Will Forster, and they repeated their success in East Bookham. The by-elections were held on Thursday (July 10).

Woking results

It was the resignation of Will Forster, MP for Woking, from his council seats that triggered the Woking by-elections.

Will Forster triggered two by-elections when he stepped down from the his roles as borough councillor for Hoe Valley and county council member for Woking South to concentrate on his parliamentary work.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he was “incredibly proud” of his decade and a half in the council chambers.

Both Lib Dem candidates in Woking secured over 60 per cent of votes cast, huge leads. It was also notable that in both elections Reform UK came second with about 20 per cent of the votes cast, pushing the Conservatives with less than 10 per cent (down from 26 per cent in 2021), into third place. Labour and The Greens polled under 5 per cent in both by-elections.

Cllr Morales, the new county councillor for Woking South

The winning candidate for Woking South, Cllr Louise Morales, said: “I am overwhelming grateful to the people who voted for me and put their trust in me to do what I can for Woking but I am also aware that so many did not vote or voted for another candidate.

“I want to stress that I am county councillor for all of them and will do my best to stand up for the and represent everyone regardless of whether they vote for me or not.

“I have lived in Woking for 30 years and have both children and grandchildren living locally.

“I will do my best to make long terms plans for roads, infrastructure, and services work for future generations, not just superficial fixes for the short term.”

Full results for Woking South by-election for Surrey County Council

Richard Barker, Reform UK 584 (19.2%)
Martin Benstead, Conservative Party 291 (9.6%)
Paul Hoekstra, Green Party 134 (4.4%)
Louise Morales, Liberal Democrats 1939 (63.8%) elected
Sean O’Malley, Labour Party 91 (2.3%)

Full results of the Hoe Valley by-election for Woking Borough Council

Samar Chaudhary, Labour Party 69 (3.8%)
Sean Flude, Reform UK 379 (21.3%)
Paul Hoekstra, Green Party 83 (4.7%)
Deborah Hughes, Liberal Democrats 1,118 (62.8%) elected
Robert Kwiatkowski, Conservative Party 130 (7.3%)

Bookham East result

Further east in Surrey, the Lib Dems had another victory by holding the Bookham East and Eastwick Park Mole Valley Council ward.

The winning Lib Dem, Lawrence Penney, secured 56 per cent of the vote while the Reform UK candidate pushed the Conservatives into third placed by the narrowest possible margin a single vote. Both had 20.5 per cent of the vote share, while the Green Party had just three per cent.

George Potter, a Lib Dem borough and county councillor, was understandably delighted with the results. He said: “The Lib Dems cruised to victory on Thursday, getting over 60 per cent of the vote in Woking and over 50 per cent in Bookham.

Cllr George Potter

“But this isn’t that surprising given their performance in last month’s council by-election in Spelthorne, where they gained a seat from the Conservatives despite having not stood a candidate previously. Clearly people are happy with the performance of their Lib Dem councils and MPs.

“But in all these by-elections it is notable that it was Reform who came in second place, narrowly surpassing the Tories, suggesting that the Conservatives could be paying a political price for cancelling this year’s local elections. However, since both right-wing parties combined still performed worse than the Lib Dems, it looks like neither face happy electoral prospects in Surrey.

“So with Labour and Greens nowhere to be seen, it looks as though it’s the Lib Dems, rather than Reform, who are on track for landslide victories in our county.”

Graham Drage

Graham Drage, chair of the Guildford branch of Reform UK, was pleased with his party’s performance but recognised the next challenge of being serious contenders against the Lib Dems.

He told The Dragon: “Reform UK is delighted with recent by-election results in Ashford Town (19 June), Bookham East & Eastwick Park, Woking South and Hoe Valley (10 July), where our candidates secured four strong second-place finishes.

“These results show Reform is on the rise across Surrey. We will continue to hold continuity-remain parties to account for failing services and runaway spending. Reform UK offers the only real alternative for local government built on fiscal discipline, accountability and common sense as we approach the local elections in 2026.”

These results, electoral straws in the wind, are the best indicators of the current political loyalties in Surrey we can have at the moment but, of course, they don’t represent the views of all the diverse parts of the county.

The Lib Dems remain popular and have won outright majorities. It seems clear that the Conservatives, so long the dominant party in Surrey, have not yet been forgiven for their performance nationally, leading up to the last general election, while the Labour vote seems unencouraged by the current Government’s performance and remains very low.

Clearly Reform UK is picking up voters, mainly from former Conservative supporters, and might have even more success in future elections within more urbanised areas,. But their popularity in Surrey, it seems, does not yet mirror that in other parts of England, for example neighbouring Kent, where they recently took control of the county council.

Exactly what voters are voting for in terms of policies when voting for the different parties is always unclear. The decision by SCC not to hold elections and general concern over the local government reorganisation might well have played a part while views on national politics are a constant factor in local elections.

Perhaps the salient point is that the two major political parties, together, polled less than 15 per cent of the votes cast. We are no longer in two-party, Conservative-Labour politics and many are questioning whether our existing voting system can, any longer, produce results that carry democratic authority.