Labour have gained a county councillor for Dartford North East amid results that largely reflected established Conservative dominance in Kent's County Council (KCC) elections.
In what turned out to be a close race, Labour's Kelly Jane Grehan narrowly beat Conservative candidate Peter William Whapshott to secure a seat on Kent's Tory-dominated council.
Grehan won 1,872 votes in total, some 44 per cent of those cast, edging out Whapshott's final tally of 1,763 (41 per cent).
My name was on the ballot but this win was only possible because of the enormous work by my agent @JonathonHawkes & my campaign manager @joshuagrills1, both assets to the Labour Party https://t.co/9Lf6hGfccP
— Cllr Kelly Grehan (@Kelly_Grehan) May 7, 2021
The Green Party's Laura Helen Ker Edie came in third with 559, or 13 per cent of votes cast.
Some 28 per cent of eligible voters turned out to cast ballots for the seat.
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Results from elsewhere in the region reflected Conservative dominance of county politics in Kent, with 61 seats including Dartford West, Dartford East and Wilmington going to the Conservatives.
With almost all seats counted, other parties in Kent were distant, with the Labour / Labour and Cooperative Party returning seven seats in total, the Liberal Democrats six and the Green Party four.
Of those seats, though, some like Dartford North East were gains progressive gains, such as the Green gains in Swale East and Ashford East, and Labour's gain in Canterbury City North.
Click here for a full list of results in Kent's County Council election.
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