Elstree and Borehamwood emeritus minister Rabbi Alan Plancey has an extended congregation after winning the Borehamwood North seat for the Tories in a Hertfordshire County Council by-election.

In his new role he will draw on the people skills honed during more than 30 years as a community rabbi.

“I don’t want them to go to waste and now I am going to employ them for the benefit of the whole community,” he said.

The poll was triggered by the death of Conservative councillor Martin Heywood — “a good friend of mine and always a very good friend to the Jewish community”. Councillor Heywood’s wife was among those who urged Rabbi Plancey to stand.

A long-time champion of the Tories and a keen supporter of current Hertsmere MP James Clappison and his predecessor Lord Parkinson, Rabbi Plancey maintains that as he is no longer a serving rabbi, “I am free to engage in politics on my own account”.

His victory had been “a community vote, not a Jewish vote”.