British National Party councillor Sharon Ebanks has vowed to carry on unofficially as a councillor and will fight and win the next local election, her party said last night.
Simon Darby, the party's West Midlands organiser, said Miss Ebanks was the real winner in the Kingstanding ward of Birmingham despite Wednesday's High Court ruling that she should be replaced by Labour candidate Catharine Grundy.
He also declared that the party believes there are at least three seats in Birmingham it could win at next year's local elections, where he confirmed Ms Ebanks will also stand again to become a councillor.
He said: "Labour might be able to claim a short-term triumph but in the end, it won't do them any good."
Mr Darby claimed there was something "very suspicious" about the overturned result for Kingstanding, where Ms Ebanks became the city's first BNP councillor in May's local elections.
She was declared the winner in the ward on election night, only for officials to realise they had miscounted the votes.
The BNP insisted it had won the election and the councillor was sworn in while Labour took legal action to overturn the result, which the council cannot take back after a declaration has been made.
A recount, overseen by judges in the High Court, was officially announced on Wednesday and revealed that Ms Grundy obtained 1,811 votes while Ms Ebanks obtained 1,327. Labour's Zoe Hopkins, who came first in the poll, obtained 1,881 votes.
Two judges declared they were removing Ms Ebanks from the city council, and named Ms Grundy the winner in her place.
Mr Darby said the outcome was not unexpected: "We are obviously not happy about the result and we feel there is something very suspicious about it but in the scheme of things there is nothing we can do about that.
"The judges could only go on the information that they had got. The important thing is what the people in Kingstanding think and that is that Labour have imposed themselves and that Sharon Ebanks was the winner.
"Sharon has been a councillor there for three months now and was well known before but is even more so now. She will carry on being a councillor, albeit in an unofficial manner."
Ms Ebanks would not simply "go away", he added, saying that she would definitely fight the next election and would win "if things are run properly this time".
He also confirmed that Kingstanding would not be the only ward targeted by the party at the next local elections.
Labour members in the West Midlands, meanwhile, welcomed the instalment of Catharine Grundy as the second Labour councillor in the ward.
Ms Grundy said: "I am delighted to have been elected as one of the Labour councillors for Kingstanding. I know that the big issues for the people who I represent are fighting crime and anti-social behaviour, improving local housing and housing repairs, transportation, training and getting people into jobs.
"I will continue to work as hard as possible to get real improvements to council services for the people of Kingstanding."
