Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is close to achieving a significant victory that would greatly impact UK politics. Currently, the party is leading by four votes ahead of Labour in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election.
There is a recount of the ballot papers taking place in the Cheshire constituency due to the narrow margin. This election night is anticipated to result in significant local political gains for the right-wing party, possibly at the expense of the two major parties.
If confirmed, this win would go down in history as the closest victory in a by-election in modern Britain. It is worth noting that just nine months ago during the general election, this seat in Cheshire was considered a safe Labour stronghold, which is now causing concern for Sir Keir Starmer.
Mike Amesbury won by 14,696 votes in July, but he resigned earlier this year after being convicted of assaulting a constituent on a night out, triggering this vote.
Writing on social media Mr Farage said: ‘Labour have demanded a recount. We are very confident we have won.’
Earlier, Reform only narrowly missed out on having a mayor in North Tyneside, cutting a Labour majority of almost 14,000 down to just 444 votes.
It was a similar story in Doncaster, where Labour’s Ros Jones closed out Mr Farage’s party by just 698 votes. The Tories were in third, with the right-wing parties together taking 57 per cent of the vote.
The re-elected mayor Ros Jones launched an extraordinary tirade at Sir Keir after the result, berating him for not ‘listening’ to unrest over cuts to winter fuel allowance and the national insurance hike.
Reform were also a shock second in the West of England, where Labour held the mayoralty in what was meant to be a two-horse race between them and the Greens.
Reform UK candidate Dame Andrea Jenkyns remains well on course to become the first North Lincolnshire mayor, after winning in all of the first four authorities to declare their results, with nine in total.
Reform is also expected to take hundreds of council seats surrendered by the Tories as disaffected voters show their disdain for both Labour and the Conservatives.
Tory shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately told BBC Newsnight the party was on course for ‘a bit of a battering’.
The Runcorn by-election looks set to be the closest result in the post-war period
In one of the first major shocks of the night, Labour’s Karen Clark won the race to be mayor of North Tyneside, which has been held by the party since its inception in 2002.
But the margin of victory was just 444 votes, ahead of Reform’s John Falkenstein in second place and the Tories pushed down to third.
The last time the mayoralty was up for grabs in 2021 the Labour majority was almost 14,000 – although a different voting system was used then.
Mr Farage said he wanted to ‘smash the two-party system’, adding: ‘The two major parties are more fearful of the results tonight than we are.’
Senior Labour sources have also suggested Reform could win Durham Council, which would raise eyebrows as it is an area where the party would expect to do well.
Returning Doncaster mayor Ms Jones condemned Sir Keir for failing to ‘listen’ to the public.
She told the BBC: ‘I wrote as soon as the winter fuel allowance was actually mooted, and I said it was wrong, and therefore I stepped in immediately and used our household support fund to ensure no-one in Doncaster went cold during the winter.’
The increase in national insurance was ‘hitting some of our smaller businesses’ and the squeeze on the personal independence payment was leaving many people ‘worried’, Ms Jones said.
She added: ‘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.’
Reform UK won three of the first five wards declared at Northumberland County Council, with Labour and the Conservatives picking up one each.
It also picked up seats in Norwich and Hartlepool.
Voters are heading to the polls across England today in 23 council elections, six mayoral contests, and one parliamentary by-election.
Up for grabs are more than 1,600 council seats, half-a-dozen regional mayors, and the new MP for Runcorn and Helsby.
It is the first big test for Britain’s political parties since last July’s general election, at which Labour secured a landslide win.
Results did not start dropping until after 2am, with mayors and the by-election first.
Council votes will come in later on Friday as they will not start being counted until the morning.
If confirmed it would be the narrowest by-election win in modern British history, in what was a safe Labour seat just nine months ago at the general electi
The parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby was triggered by Mike Amesbury’s resignation from the House of Commons.
It came after he was jailed for 10 weeks for punching a constituent while drunk in Frodsham, Cheshire, last October.
Amesbury spent three nights in HMP Altcourse, Merseyside, in February before successfully appealing his sentence.
He won Runcorn and Helsby for Labour at July’s general election with a 14,696-vote majority.
Reform came second to Labour in the Cheshire constituency last summer, while the Tories came third – more than 900 votes behind Reform.
Labour has the most seats on Durham Council (52 out of 126), but has been shut out of power for the past four years by a multi-party coalition that includes the Tories, the Lib Dems, Greens and various independents.
Before losing control in 2021, Labour had enjoyed a majority in Durham continuously since 1925.
At this election the council is being reduced in size from 126 to 98 seats, which makes the outcome hard to predict. Labour will hope to regain full control, but is facing a new challenge from Reform.
One senior Labour source told MailOnline: ‘Durham could be a bigger story than Runcorn. The results were awful last time, I think they will be worse this time. Reform has an outside chance of running the council. Considering we ran the show for 102 years up to 2021 it’ll be devastating.’
Former Tory minister Dame Andrea Jenkyns (top) is expected to become mayor of Greater Lincolnshire and former Olympic boxer Luke Campbell (above) is in with a chance of winning in Hull and East Yorkshire.
Labour chairwoman Ellie Reeves struck a cautious note tonight, saying the elections ‘were always going to be a challenge’, with most being held in Tory areas last contested in 2021.
Meanwhile a Tory spokesman added: ‘We also have always been clear that these would be tough elections for the party – defending an incredibly high watermark from 2021 when we took two-thirds of all seats.
‘If the 2024 General Election was replicated on today’s battleground, we would lose control of almost every single council.
‘Labour won a historic supermajority last year in a large number of areas that are facing local elections tonight and it would be reasonable to expect a government with such a commanding presence in Westminster to make serious progress tonight.
‘Anything less than this ought to raise serious questions about the direction Labour is taking this country, and about Keir Starmer’s own leadership.’
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey was optimistic about his party’s prospects as polls closed.
‘We are expecting to see big gains against the Conservatives in their former Middle England heartlands,’ he 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.
‘Voters have delivered their verdict on a Conservative Party that broke the country and a Labour government that is too timid to fix it.’
