Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has made massive gains in the local elections across England in a series of stunning victories that have redrawn the political map.
The populist right-wing party won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election in dramatic circumstances with a majority of just six votes following a recount, overturning a Labour majority of 14,000.
This preceded a set of local election results that saw their candidate Dame Andrea Jenkyns win as mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, where Reform won a majority of county council seats too. The party also seized majorities in Staffordshire and Durham, inflicting severe pain on both Labour and the Tories.
All 23 council results have now been announced, with Reform taking control of 10 councils, the Liberal Democrats taking control of three, and another 10 now under no overall control. A night of capitulation for the Tories saw them lose all 15 councils which they previously had control of.
The row over ousting Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe appeared to be a distant memory for Mr Farage and Reform as the party swept hundreds of seats across England, emerging as the biggest winner in this round of elections.
Polling guru Professor Sir John Curtice declared that the result showed British politics is “no longer a two-party system” – this having been replaced by a five-party set-up, with the Liberal Democrats and Greens also making gains.
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However, in a terrible night for the Tories and Labour, both parties appeared set to make significant losses.
The results could raise serious questions over Kemi Badenoch’s leadership if the Conservative Party is left with no real heartlands in the UK, with senior Tories already plotting to oust her.
A rare bright spot for the party came as Paul Bristow was declared the narrow winner of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayoralty, taking 28 per cent of the vote and beating the Reform candidate Ryan Coogan, who took 23 per cent, into second place.
The results also unleashed almost 10 months’ worth of pent-up frustration among senior Labour figures with prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, who has been blamed for the party’s disastrous showing in Thursday’s elections.
Mr Farage’s party also won the mayoral race in Hull and East Yorkshire, with former Olympic boxer Luke Campbell winning the ballot as part of what appeared to be a seismic shift in voting across Britain.
However, with turnouts often at less than 30 per cent, opponents of Reform were able to cling on to hope that disillusionment and apathy had opened the door for Mr Farage’s party and that the outcome would be different in a general election.
Nevertheless, a jubilant Mr Farage said: “For the movement, for the party, it’s a very, very big moment indeed, absolutely, no question, and it’s happening right across England.”
He said it was a sign that Sir Keir had “alienated so much of his traditional base, it’s just extraordinary”. However, Labour said that by-elections are “always difficult for the party in government”. They said the events surrounding the Runcorn and Helsby vote – the resignation of former Labour MP Mike Amesbury after his conviction for assaulting a constituent – had made it “even harder”.
The prime minister himself attempted to avoid questions on the local elections as he visited a defence contractor in Bedfordshire.
But asked about the results by Sky News, he said: “The message I take away from these results is we must deliver change even more quickly, we must go even further. I’ve believed for some time that’s the case, and [it’s been] reinforced in these results that that’s what we’ve got to do.”
Labour Party chair Ellie Reeves acknowledged that voters are “impatient”, but insisted that “change takes time”. She suggested Reform would face greater scrutiny after its electoral gains. “We’ve had to stabilise the economy, but we’re starting that work. We’ve got our Plan for Change, we’re beginning to see the results of this, but we know we need to go further and faster,” she told Times Radio.
But Doncaster’s victorious Labour mayor Ros Jones – who was re-elected with a majority of 698 after a battle with Reform – hit out at the prime minister’s administration. She criticised decisions to means-test the winter fuel allowance, hike employers’ national insurance contributions and squeeze welfare.
Ms Jones told the BBC: “I think the results here tonight will demonstrate that they need to be listening to the man, woman and businesses on the street, and actually deliver for the people, with the people.”
Anger over taking the winter fuel payment from 10 million pensioners, slashing benefits for the disabled and hiking taxes on businesses was blamed for the catastrophic results for Labour.
Former Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell – now an independent MP after he was forced out for opposing the two-child benefit cap – described the party’s response to the results so far as “tin-eared”.
Mr McDonnell said on social media: “Labour supporters feel Labour, their party, has turned its back on them citing Winter Fuel Allowance, NI tax on jobs & threat of disability cuts. Message to ministers is drop the plans to attack [the] disabled.”
In her speech after winning Runcorn, Sarah Pochin, a former Conservative councillor, said voters had made clear that “enough is enough”.
The Tories, meanwhile, were trying to limit the damage, and made it clear they would not be forced into a deal with Reform.
Previously, shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick, who some believe is angling to be leader, had been recorded saying that a deal was inevitable.
But as the results came in, Tory co-chair Nigel Huddleston insisted there could be no deal with a party “whose aim is to destroy the Conservative Party”.
He went on: “Kemi’s position is certainly solid. She’s only been leader for six months, and she was out and about right across the country, and I can tell you this: everywhere we went, people wanted to see her more and hear more from her.”
Meanwhile, Ms Badenoch has tried to play down the electoral catastrophe for her party as it lost hundreds of seats and now faces the onward march of Reform.
In a statement, she said: “These were always going to be a very difficult set of elections, coming off the high of 2021 and our historic defeat last year – and so it’s proving. The renewal of our party has only just begun, and I’m determined to win back the trust of the public and the seats we’ve lost, in the years to come.”
The Lib Dems made gains but failed in their bid to win Devon County Council, although they displaced the Tories there as the biggest party.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said: “Last year, the Liberal Democrats won a record number of MPs and became the largest third party in 100 years. Now we are on course for our seventh year of local election gains, making this our best ever winning streak.”
Maps and results with input from Election Maps UK
