VICTORIOUS Nigel Farage has blasted critics who mocked his ambitions of becoming the nation’s next Prime Minister — as he declared “they’re not laughing now.”
Reform UK’s leader launched a smash-and-grab raid in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election with victory by just six votes over Labour as he laid out a path to Downing Street.
5
5
His insurgent party, which will now have five MPs, was also celebrating seizing control of eight councils, 628 council seats and winning two mayoral races.
Voting experts estimate that if a national poll had taken place on Thursday, Reform would have finished with 30 per cent of the vote, ten per cent ahead of Labour.
The Lib Dems would be on 17 per cent with the Tories pushed into fourth with 15 per cent.
Mr Farage could not contain his glee as he revelled in Reform’s astonishing success — before blasting those who poked fun when he said he wanted to be PM by 2029.
He reckoned: “They’re not laughing now, are they? They’ve seen this Reform-quake. That’s what’s going on across the country today.
“These are the most astonishing set of local election results in the history of our country.”
Speaking at a victory rally in County Durham, he told supporters he was convinced Reform could “make history” and go on and win the next general election.
Reform seized control of Staffs, Derbys, Notts and Lincs councils plus those of Kent, Lancs, Durham and Doncaster.
Mr Farage guaranteed that he will do everything possible to ensure small-boat migrants are not allowed to locate in counties which Reform now control.
His party swept Labour and the Tories aside although the Lib Dems took control of Oxfordshire, Cambs and Shropshire councils.
The Greens also picked up more councillors.
Pushed as to whether he would consider an electoral pact with Kemi Badenoch’s Tories, Mr Farage gave a flat “No”.
He added: “I don’t want to do a deal with them. We’re going to win the next election on our own.”
Reform’s spectacular night began in the former safe Labour seat in Cheshire vacated after then MP Mike Amesbury punched a constituent.
Victory in Runcorn and Helsby was rubber-stamped for Reform’s Sarah Pochin a little after 6am following a recount.
She overturned a Labour majority of almost 14,700 as Reform’s vote share surged.
5
5
Speaking at the count, Mr Farage said: “We’ve dug very deep into the Labour vote and, in other parts of England, we’ve dug deep into the Conservative vote.
“We are now, after tonight there’s no question, in most of the country, we are now the main opposition party to this Government.”
Former Tory Minister Andrea Jenkyns added to the joy by winning the Greater Lincolnshire mayoralty with a majority of almost 40,000 over her old party.
Luke Campbell, a former boxer and medallist at the Olympics, won Reform’s second mayoralty in Hull and East Yorkshire. What followed during yesterday afternoon was a steady procession of victories for the party as it seized eight councils.
The runaway success prompted Mr Farage to declare that Reform had “the Labour Party for lunch”.
He also said the polls marked “the end of two party politics as we know it”.
He said it was the “beginning of the end of the Conservative Party” which he said had been “wiped out” in the shires of England.
Labour did hold on in the mayoral races in Doncaster, the West of England and North Tyneside but Reform were snapping at their heels in second place.
5
Polling expert Prof John Curtice said it was the first time that a party other than the Tories or Labour had been ahead in the projected national share forecast, based on the results in 1,100 wards.
He said Reform’s 30 per cent was ahead of the 23 per cent Ukip saw in 2013.
He also said it was the first time the two main parties combined failed to hit 50 per cent.
Mr Farage appeared in a hurry to get on with setting policy for his new councils saying he is prepared to battle central government over migrants being housed in his party’s areas. He said very many people he had spoken to in the North were “enraged”.
He said: “They get up early, they go to work, they pay their taxes, and they see young men crossing the English Channel, being dumped into the North of England getting everything for free.”
Mr Farage added that Reform would try to prevent central government from “plonking scores, hundreds of these young men in these counties that we now control”.
He added that Reform would try to scale back councils’ work “to what it ought to be”, end working from home and sack staff working on climate change or diversity.
In the address, he said Reform was now the party of the working man and woman.
He said: “We want to reindustrialise Britain, reindustrialise the North, and give men and women well-paid, skilled jobs and a sense of pride in their communities and what they do.
“And we can’t do that from Durham county council, but we can set the markers for how we intend to govern.
“You have cleared a very important hurdle today. And next year we’ll clear those hurdles in the Welsh and Scottish parliamentary elections.
“And I believe, as I think you believe, we really will make history and win the next general election.”
Election expert Will Jennings said Reform were doing better in areas with fewer graduates and where people are employed in sectors such as manufacturing.
Reform a threat beyond the Wall
By Scarlett Maguire, Pollster, founder of Merlin Strategy
NIGEL Farage’s Reform UK have already made it very clear they pose an existential threat to the Conservatives — but this week’s results show us that they are coming for Labour too.
When Boris Johnson’s Conservatives won swathes of Labour’s Red Wall in the 2019 General Election it sent shockwaves through the political establishment.
But Reform’s 2029 campaign looks like it could be an earthquake of a different magnitude.
Thursday night’s results indicate that not only could Reform easily win seats which voted Tory in 2019, but even threaten constituencies in the Labour heartlands which had previously seemed out of reach.
Those MPs representing traditionally working-class Labour areas who survived 2019 — such as Cabinet ministers Yvette Cooper and Ed Miliband — are in big trouble.
But Reform aren’t just gaining ground in those parts of the country often described by the Westminster bubble as “left behind”.
They over-performed expectations in places including Hertfordshire and Worcestershire too.
In this world of frustrated voters and fragmented politics there really is no longer such a thing as a safe seat anywhere in the UK.
Badenoch bashed
By Martina Bet
THE knives are out for Kemi Badenoch after Reform UK battered the Tories at the ballot box.
Furious MPs have accused their party’s leader of going missing while Nigel Farage’s insurgents run riot.
Since taking over six months ago, Mrs Badenoch, has kept a low profile, unveiling few policies as part of a slow-burning “renewal” plan to reset the party before the next General Election.
But one Tory MP fumed: “We can’t stay out of the limelight. That’s just f_____g stupid.”
A Cabinet minister added: “I think she is going to have to make a lot of changes . . . get a proper Shadow Cabinet that is at least going to do some work.
“Her approach has no chance of success. She needs to adapt.”
Reacting to the hammering, she posted online: “The renewal of our party has only just begun and I’m determined to win back the trust of the public.”
Some Tory MPs have, privately, made the case for a pact with Reform to unite the Right despite party chairman Nigel Huddleston ruling out such a move.