Last Thursday, there were seven by-elections but one result stood out from the rest – among six Reform successes, Labour held on in just one seat. I might be a bit biased, being the Lib Dem candidate in that seat, but I have more than a sneaking suspicion that the campaign run by my team, helped keep Reform at bay.

On the face of it, by running a campaign in Strawberry ward in Ellesmere Port, we were on a hiding to nothing. There isn’t a local Lib Dem party, there aren’t enough members. The Lib Dems have never won an election here. We never even field a full slate of candidates at the all out elections. Our best hope is usually to hope that the Greens don’t field a candidate. If they do, we’ll probably come fourth of four which somehow feels worse than third of three. People here are just not used to voting Lib Dem. We did field a candidate in Strawberry at the last election but didn’t run any kind of campaign. Labour won with 972 votes (69%). Our brave candidate got just 95 votes. The ward itself is on the very edge of the town, just as the fields between us and Chester start. It has no social housing, no obvious issues, just nice middle class owner occupiers.

So why did we bother? I can’t answer that one. All I know is that I had my arm twisted to stand as the candidate. As a local businesswoman, I am relatively well known locally. In the previous two elections, I’ve stood in central Ellesmere Port and twice come second. Last time, I gained one of only two second places for the Lib Dems in the whole of Cheshire West and Chester. (The other one was a target seat). Both times, I came second on a zero campaign, but still a long way behind Labour.

The decision was made to run the best campaign we could and we started in the most Lib Dem way possible – with a resident’s survey. We put a QR code on and an address. We didn’t expect people to stamp and post it back but they did! Then we started with the first of two ward-wide leaflets, followed by a leaflet delivered just to postal voters. People came from across Cheshire and the Wirral to help deliver and to canvass. It was amazing. But the turning point of the campaign was when my agent, Andy Hyde, decided the second ward-wide leaflet should stop targeting Labour as the challengers and target Reform even though Reform had never stood locally. He met with some resistance from others in the campaign, but enough people shared his vison so he changed the final leaflet to name Reform as the challengers in this election. All I can say is that I believe that is what made the difference. OK, it didn’t make a difference for us, I polled a miserable 121 votes, a 0.5% increase and came 11 votes behind the Tories. But I believe it woke people up to the danger of Reform. Turnout at local by elections is notoriously low. At a by-election last year in Ellesmere Port the turnout was just 22.8% but this one bucked the trend and the turnout actually increased from 35% last time to 41.6% this time.

Yes, I know, where we work we win. But this time, where we worked, we woke up the electorate to the danger of Reform. Was it worth it? Absolutely. We will still be here when Farage’s self interest has been exposed and the Reform bubble has burst. If it can be done here, it can be done anywhere.

The hero of this by election is the agent, whose vision stopped yet another Reform gain and prevented them from having a clean sweep last Thursday. My grateful thanks go to everyone who leafleted and canvassed in the Lib Dem black hole that is Strawberry. But Andy Hyde – you’re a hero.

* Elizabeth Jewkes is a member of the Lib Dem Women Executive and has stood for the party many times for a variety of unwinnable seats. She is possibly best known as the creator of the policy to raise the income tax threshold. She is vice chair of Cheshire West and Chester local party.