Liberal Democrats in Bath and North East Somerset have lost a seat on the council to an independent challenger by just four votes.

Chris Warren, who chaired Saltford Parish Council for seven years, has now been elected as the village’s independent councillor on Bath and North East Somerset Council.

Mr Warren said he was “delighted” with the result, adding: “An incredibly narrow margin but a win is a win and there’s no such thing as bad publicity.”

He received 587 votes to Liberal Democrat hopeful Hossein Pirooz’s 583 in the council byelection on January 16. Mr Pirooz said: “I thought the campaign went really well. I’m obviously very disappointed to have lost by such a margin of just four votes.”

Meanwhile, Labour’s support collapsed to just 60 votes — and their candidate was in Australia. A member of the Labour team said this had already been booked before the byelection.

There was a turnout of 42.5 per cent in the election, with 1,972 out of an electorate of 4,897 casting their votes. There were four spoiled ballots. Counting went on until 1am in Saltford Hall, after a recount was called over the close result.

Mr Warren said: “It’s very satisfying to win in my home village. I have lived here for 26 years. It was quite shocking to see the amount of resource which was thrown at this seat by the Liberal Democrats — so it made it even sweeter to win tonight.”

During the byelection campaign, Mr Warren insisted he was not behind an account on X (formerly Twitter) which has called the council “utter reprehensible s***bags” and called council workers “w**kstains.” He suggested images of him tweeted by the account may have been taken from Facebook, and said: “It ain’t me. I’ve been trolled.”

Mr Condick, who came fourth with 205 votes, said: “At least Saltford has voted for something different than the Liberal Democrats. And I’m glad I’m ahead of Labour, being the governing party.”

He had a bet with a friend that he would shave off his beard, which he has had since he was 15, if the Liberal Democrats had held the seat. He said: “I’m glad I’m keeping my beard. I’ve never shaved it off.”

Green candidate Luanne Thornton said coming fifth with 159 votes showed the Greens could maintain or improve on previous performance.

The votes cast for each candidate were:

Andrew David Busby (Conservative) – 375

Daniel Patrick Condick (Reform UK) – 205

Jane Emma Giddins (Labour) – 60

Hossein Pirooz (Liberal Democrat) – 583

Luanne Thornton (Green) – 159

Christopher John Warren (Independent) – 587

The result means that the independents now have seven councillors — the same number as the Labour group who are the opposition on the council. The Liberal Democrats still have an overwhelming majority with 40 of the 59 seats on the council.

The byelection was triggered after Liberal Democrat councillor Alison Streatfeild-James stepped down to take on a new role at the Financial Conduct Authority where she cannot hold political office. Duncan Hounsell (also Liberal Democrat) remains Saltford’s other councillor.