Labour wins by-election to keep Cardiff council Reform-free

Martin Shipton

Labour has fended off a by-election challenge to ensure Reform UK did not gain a foothold in Cardiff council.

Reform had high hopes of winning in the predominantly white working class ward of Llanrumney, but local community activist Lexi Pocknell retained the seat for Welsh Labour with 755 votes.

Reform’s Sidney Malik was in second place with 630 votes, followed by Wayne Street of the Welsh Liberal Democrats on 281, Plaid Cymru’s Joseph Gnagbo (138), Ffin Elliott, Welsh Conservative (64) and David Fitzpatrick, Wales Green Party (47).

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Jubilant

After the result was declared, Cardiff council’s jubilant Labour leader Cllr Huw Thomas posted a message to social media stating: “@WelshLabour HOLD Llanrumney!! Huge congrats to our brill candidate, Lexi Pocknell. It’s a massive blow to Reform (and to Plaid candidly). If current polls were accurate, they should be sweeping us aside - NOT TODAY NIGEL, not in Cardiff.”

@WelshLabour HOLD Llanrumney!!
Huge congrats to our brill candidate, Lexi Pocknell.
It's a massive blow to Reform (and to Plaid candidly). If current polls were accurate, they should be sweeping us aside - NOT TODAY NIGEL, not in Cardiff!

Lab 755
Ref 630
LD 281
Grn 47
Plaid 138 pic.twitter.com/3UhN1LRWBr

— Huw Thomas (@huwthomas_Wales) July 24, 2025

Despite Labour’s victory, the party won with 39.4% of the vote - 20.5 percentage points down on the last election in 2022.

Reform, which didn’t stand in 2022, won 32.9% of the vote.

The Liberal Democrats on 14.7% were 9.3 points up on the last election.

Plaid Cymru and the Green Party also didn't stand in 2022. This time Plaid got 7.2% of the vote and the Greens 2.5%.

The Welsh Conservatives, with 3.3% of the vote, were 14.2 points down on 2022.

On the eve of poll, Reform UK’s Cardiff branch chairman Lee Canning told Nation.Cymru: “We’ve had a lot of activists out in the ward and they’ve learned a lot. Whatever the result it's clear that Labour is frightened of Reform. They’ve poured people in, put out leaflets not only saying why people should vote for them, but also why they shouldn’t vote for Reform.”

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Fantasist

During the campaign the Reform candidate Sidney Malik was exposed by Nation.Cymru as a fantasist.

His website asserts that he is the founder of ERA Film Studios, whose headquarters is in St Albans, Hertfordshire, but according to Companies House its registered office is in Bristol.

ERA is described on its website as “a global media and cultural powerhouse leading a new era in film, music, talent, wrestling, real estate, consultancy and global impact. We redefine storytelling, creative excellence, industry innovation, and global influence by merging future technologies, immersive, extended reality and virtual production and artificial intelligence.”

However, returns to Companies House show that the company does not appear to have traded since it was incorporated in 2008. At the outset it had £10,000 in share capital not paid, and that remained the case until the most recently filed set of accounts for the year ending September 30 2023.

Accounts for the year ending September 30 2024 should have been filed by the end of June 2025, but are overdue.

Between 2018 and 2025 there were seven applications made by the Registrar of Companies for the company to be struck off the register of companies at Companies House. All of the applications to dissolve the company were withdrawn, most recently on May 31 2025.

According to the most recent Companies House return, ERA has just one employee, presumably Mr Malik.

This week, despite the contrast between his website claims and reality, Mr Malik sent an email threatening legal action against Nation.Cymru and its CEO and claiming up to $2bn (two billion US dollars) in damages.