Reform take Pelsall: Everything you need to know about Councillor Graham Eardley's victory
Reform UK has gained its first seat on Walsall Council.
The party won a by-election in Pelsall yesterday, Thursday, September 11.
Graham Eardley was voted in with 1,231 votes in the ward, traditionally a Conservative stronghold.
The 59-year-old said he would speak up for Pelsall, ‘ask questions and get answers’ around the York’s Bridge construction and tackle the issue of motorbikes on McClean Way.
Coun Eardley, who lives in Pelsall, launched a petition calling on Walsall Council to close any hotels in the borough being used for asylum seekers and reopen them for public use.
Government figures from August confirmed no hotels in the borough were being used for such a purpose.
The by-election was called following the resignation of former Pelsall councillor Garry Perry.
Mr Perry, who was first elected in 1998, stepped down last month claiming the system had become ‘tone deaf to challenge’ and ‘transparency was often optional’.
He was the leader of Walsall Council between June 2024 and May 2025.
Mr Perry announced his departure from the post in a statement which condemned ‘a sustained campaign of political attrition’ and ‘bullying dressed up as politics’.
Lee Chapman, the Conservative candidate hoping to fill his spot in Pelsall, was second with 1,176 votes.
Coming third was Green Party candidate Joe Belcher, with 127 votes, followed by Labour candidate Hannah Jones with 125 and Liberal Democrat Dan Barker with 72.
The turnout was just 31.98 per cent.
Walsall Council has refused to officially disclose the exact cost of previous by-elections, but it was understood the last by-election in 2021, for the Pleck ward, cost around £20,000.
Pelsall will now be served by Coun Eardley and the two existing conservative ward members, Couns Rose Martin and Edward Lee, until the all-out local elections on May 7, 2026.
