How did the Conservatives win Gorse Hill, which has been a Labour stronghold for decades?

Mohammed Altaf, who pulled off the surprise of the evening, said it’s because Labour councillors and administrations have “done nothing” for the area for years.

But it also seems that the ward was one of the few in Worcester to follow a pronounced national trend where former UKIP voters, especially those in areas which voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum, gave their votes in large numbers to the Conservatives.

It happened in Sunderland, it happened in Nuneaton and Bedworth, and it seems to have happened in Gorse Hill.

Voters in the ward voted by three to one to leave the EU two years ago. In 2014, the UKIP candidate received 390 votes, coming second to Labour’s Geoff Williams with 509.

This year Labour candidate Jenny Barnes actually increased her vote to 529, but UKIP received only 117 votes - with Councillor Altaf the seeming beneficiary, increasing his party’s vote from 158 to 560 this year, winning the seat by 31 votes.

It also wouldn’t have helped Labour’s cause to lose the benefits of a well-known face, with Cllr Williams stepping down after 19 years.