LABOUR have held onto the St Thomas's ward seat following yesterday's by-election.

Shaneila Mughal took 1,466 of the votes in the by-election, which was triggered by the resignation of former Labour councillor Glenis Simms in December last year.

The married mother-of-three, who works for the NHS as a specialist biomedical scientist, will now serve the ward alongside her Labour colleagues, councillors Steve Waltho and Shaukat Ali (pictured below).

Dudley News:

Following her victory, she said: "I want to thank everyone who helped in the election, but most of all I want to thank the people of St Thomas’s ward for placing their trust in me.

"I will work as hard as I can to repay them.

“It is a great privilege to be elected to serve the people and the community I was brought up in and am now bringing up my family in and I’ll be working hard to listen to local people and act on their concerns, tackling the litter and fly-tipping, campaigning to get sites redeveloped and help those out of work get jobs.”

Dudley North MP, Ian Austin, added: "Shaneila will be a brilliant addition to the Labour team in St Thomas’s and will make an outstanding councillor.

"This result shows what you can do when you have a great candidate who listens to local people and comes up with answers to the things they are concerned about.”

Dudley News:

Cllr Mughal won with 61 per cent of the vote - UKIP candidate Phil Wimlett came second with 653 votes, Jonathan Elliott pulled in 249 votes for the Conservatives, while Green Party candidate Francis Sheppard secured 52 votes.

The turnout was 23.57 per cent.