The Reform Party has won the Runcorn and Helsby bye election beating Labour by just six votes and overturning Labour’s 14,700-vote majority.
Local Labour councillor and former teacher Karen Shore took on Reform’s Sarah Pochin to replace Labour’s Mike Amesbury after his conviction for assault
The result gives the party its fifth MP
Leader Nigel Farage told Sky News after the result “We now are the opposition party in the UK to Labour, and the Tories are a waste of space” while winning candidate Sarah Pochin said
“We’ve made history here tonight… now together let’s build a better future“
Meanwhile Reform UK candidate Dame Andrea Jenkyns has won the Greater Lincolnshire Mayoral race becoming the party’s first Mayor with a majority of nearly 40,000 votes.
Speaking after her victory the former Tory minister said:
‘I’ve never experienced such negativity and soul-destroying campaigns against me. The dirty tricks in US politics are being imported here in Britain.’
The former boxer and Olympic medallist Luke Campbell has been elected the first mayor of the Hull and East Yorkshire combined authority for Reform UK.
Campbell, 37, secured 48,491 votes, nearly 11,000 more than the Liberal Democrat candidate, who received 37,510, and about 27,000 more than the Conservative candidate, who received 21,393.
The County Council map has been fundementally changed
Reform have claimed seven councils so far and more than 500 seats. The Tories have lost 12 councils and around 300 seats. Labour is down more than 150 seats (and was defending far fewer than the Tories) while the Lib Dems are up more than 100 seats and the Greens have dozens extra too.
Close to home Reform has taken control of Lancashire, winning 53 of the 84 seats to gain a majority with the Tories losing 40 seats and Labour losing 27
The projected national vote share following today’s results shows Reform on 30%, Labour 20%, Liberal Democrats 17%, Conservatives 15%, Greens 11% and others 7%.
Kemi Badenoch said voters were ‘fed up with the Labour government’ but also ‘still not yet ready to trust’ the Conservatives
