Labour has held the Batley East seat on Kirklees Council – increasing its majority in the process.

A by-election was held on Thursday after Clr Amanda Stubley was expelled from the council in August after failing to attend council meetings for six months.

Clr Stubley was elected as a Labour candidate but left the party earlier this year.

Results announced on Friday revealed Labour’s candidate Habiban Nisa Zaman has won by a huge margin, taking some 77% of the votes – an increase of 14% on the last poll.

The Conservative candidate, Paul Young, was a distant second with just under 13% of the votes – down 13% on the party’s previous performance in the ward.

Independent candidate, Aleks Lukic, came in third (4.1%), pipping the Liberal Democrats’ Jon Bloom with 4%.

Green candidate, David Smith, trailed in last with only 2% of the votes.

The poll was the fourth election for residents in Batley East in just 18 months, after the EU Referendum in June 2016, the by-election following the murder of Jo Cox in October 2016, and the General Election last June.

Clr Stubley had been the member for Batley East for six years but she fell out with the Labour party in 2016 and was suspended following a high-profile run-in with far-right supporters during the Batley and Spen by-election.