Reform braced for major gains after winning knife-edge Runcorn

Labour’s defeat in Runcorn was “entirely avoidable” and “the direct result of the party leadership’s political choices”, the former shadow justice secretary said.

Richard Burgon, the MP for Leeds East, called for the Labour leadership to “urgently change course” in a post on X.

“Labour’s defeat in Runcorn was entirely avoidable — and is the direct result of the party leadership’s political choices,” he wrote.

“By pushing policies like cuts to disability benefits and scrapping the winter fuel allowance, the leadership is driving away our own voters — and letting Reform squeeze through.

“The Labour leadership must urgently change course and govern with real Labour values to deliver the change people are crying out for.”

Burgon joins a number of Labour politicians calling for change following the by-election defeat.

Co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, Adrian Ramsay (Alamy)

The UK is turning to “a five-party system”, with voters “looking for an alternative” to Labour and the Tories, the co-leader of the Greens has said.

Co-leader Adrian Ramsey has spoken on the party’s success, like winning the local council by-election in Lambeth, south London.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Ramsey said he is “confident” the party will get a record number of councillors in the 2025 local elections.

Labour’s Doncaster mayor has spoken candidly today about what she thinks are the reasons for her party’s lacklustre performance at the local elections.

Ros Jones, who was narrowly re-elected as mayor of Doncaster, puts the close shave down to the government limiting who is eligible for the winter fuel allowance, making cuts to disability benefit PIP and its national insurance increases.

She said: “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”, Jones added.

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.”

Ros Jones of the Labour Party after being declared the winner of the Doncaster Mayoral elections (Getty)

A total of 1,641 council seats are up for grabs across 23 local authorities, while four regional mayors and two local mayors will be elected.

Most of the council seats were last contested in May 2021, at a time when the then-Conservative government, led by former prime minister Boris Johnson, was enjoying a spike in popularity following the successful rollout of the first Covid-19 vaccines.

Look at the state of play in every council and mayoral contest.

Read more from PA.

Labour MP Brian Leishman has said the by-election result in Runcorn and Helsby “shows Labour must change course”.

In a post on X on Friday morning, the MP for Alloa and Grangemouth said: “Runcorn shows Labour must change course.

“People voted for real change last July & an end to austerity.

“The first 10 months haven’t been good enough or what the people want & if we don’t improve people’s living standards then the next government will be an extreme right wing one.”

Reform UK has secured a dramatic by-election victory by six votes over Labour in Runcorn and Helsby as a former Tory minister became the party’s first elected mayor.

In one of the closest parliamentary votes ever, new MP Sarah Pochin took the seat that Labour won with a majority of almost 14,700 less than a year ago.

The knife-edge result came after weeks in which Reform has been surging in popularity in nationwide polls and, in the first major electoral test since the 2024 general election, the party showed it is a force to be reckoned with.

Read the full story from Yahoo News.

Reform’s mayoral candidate for Hull, Olympic boxer Luke Campbell, with Nigel Farage (Getty)

Want to know what lies ahead? Here’s what the next few hours should look like.

Counting begins for the remaining two mayoral contests in Cambridgeshire & Peterborough and Hull & East Yorkshire.

The full result is due from Durham, where Labour hopes to regain control after being shut out by a multi-party coalition

The result is due for the new Hull & East Yorkshire mayor.

The pace begins to pick up with three councils due to finish declaring.

Kemi Badenoch’s party has taken a beating in the local elections. (PA via Getty)

All eyes are on Labour following its Runcorn by-election defeat – but the Conservatives have also experienced major losses at the hands of Reform.

The party has lost 62 seats so far this local election, following gains from Nigel Farage’s party.

Asked on BBC Breakfast if Tory leader Kemi Badenoch’s position was secure after the local election results, party co-chairman Nigel Huddleston said: “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.”

“She’s very sensible, she’s very honest, she’s very straightforward.

“She doesn’t go around telling people what they want to hear. That’s the easy route in politics.”

Reform looks likely to sweep Staffordshire County Council, beating the Conservatives to the post.

Reform has won 24 of the 30 seats that have been declared so far.

The Tories have clinched the remaining six.

There are 32 seats still to be counted before the election result will be declared.

Labour MP Brian Leishman has said the by-election result in Runcorn and Helsby “shows Labour must change course”.

In a post on X on Friday morning, the MP for Alloa and Grangemouth said: “Runcorn shows Labour must change course.

“People voted for real change last July & an end to austerity.

“The first 10 months haven’t been good enough or what the people want & if we don’t improve people’s living standards then the next government will be an extreme right wing one.”

With all the buzz around Runcorn, you wouldn’t be mistaken for thinking today is just about the by-election.

A number of local election councils are up for grabs in English constituencies – 23 to be exact.

Here’s what each party is polling at so far.

Number of councillors:

Reform – 79

Conservatives – 37

Labour – 11

Independents – 7

Liberal Democrats – 5

Greens – 2

Reform UK’s Sarah Pochin and party leader Nigel Farage (PA via Getty)

Votes are being counted across England following the local elections 2025.

A total of 1,641 council seats were up for grabs across 23 local authorities in this year’s election, while four regional mayors and two local mayors are also being elected.

Overnight Reform won another seat in Parliament after claiming victory in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election, in what is one of the closest parliamentary votes ever.

Read more from Manchester Evening News.

Nigel Huddleston spoke to the press about the Conservatives’ performance (PA Images via Getty)

What was a bad night for the Conservatives was “a terrible night for Labour”, the Tory party’s co-chairman has said.

Quizzed on the Conservatives’ significant losses over the local election, Nigel Huddleston said: “People do recognise that we’re doing that, but these local elections were always going to be tough, and it’s not a surprise that Reform won in Lincolnshire or indeed in Runcorn.

“In fact, actually, I thought they would have won by more in Runcorn.”

A Labour campaigner has said the government’s plans to slash benefits as well as axing the winter fuel payment for all pensioners cost them the Runcorn by-election.

Speaking anonymously to BBC News, the campaigner said: “On every door it was the same story – winter fuel payment and PIP.”

Labour lost out on its seat by just six votes, paving the way for Reform to secure its fifth MP.

Labour’s Ros Jones won the Doncaster mayoral vote by a slim margin of 698 votes this morning over Reform’s Alexander Jones. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Labour’s re-elected Doncaster mayor Ros Jones said her party “needs to listen to the man and the woman and the business person on the street.

Jones won by a slim margin of 698 votes this morning over Reform’s Alexander Jones.

Disagreed with Jones, Labour party chairwoman Ellie Jones said that Labour does listen to people, and instead blames the Tory legacy for Labour’s defeat.

“There’s more to do, people voted for change, we’re getting on with delivering that,” she told BBC Radio 4.

Ellie Reeves said people will now realise what a Reform vote means (Getty)

Labour Party chairwoman Ellie Reeves suggested that people will “take a closer look at Reform’s policies” rather than the party’s “hype” after its wins in Runcorn and Helsby and the Greater Lincolnshire mayoral race.

She told Sky News: “One of the things that will happen now is that people will take a closer look at Reform’s policies now that they hold the Greater Lincolnshire mayor for example, they’ve won this seat in Runcorn.

“Just this week Nigel Farage talked about moving away from the NHS being paid for from general taxation.”

Andrea Jenkyns, the new mayor of greater Lincolnshire, has been accused of using her mayoral win to go after the other candidates.

All the candidates for the area walked off stage together mid-speech when Jenkyns said about migrants that “tents are good enough for France, they should be good enough for Great Britain”.

She said the Conservatives implied she slept with political friends.

When asked about the comments she made about another candidate’s South African accent by a Sky News reporter, she left mid-interview, accusing the reporter of being “divisive” and “not understanding irony”.

As the election results unfold, polling guru Sir John Curtice said what was once “true blue” England is now looking like “true turquoise”.

Speaking on the by-election result and the local elections, Sir John said Reform winning the by-election in itself is “a substantial success” for the party.

He told BBC Radio 4: “Ukip never managed to win a by-election.

“We have broken new ground.”

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage (right) and chair Zia Yusuf (centre) celebrate for the media after Reform candidate Sarah Pochin won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election. (PA)

Reform UK remained on track to take control of Lincolnshire County Council, after winning 19 of the first 25 seats to be declared, with Labour on three, Liberal Democrats two and Conservatives one.

The party needed another 17 seats from the 45 still to be declared to gain a majority on a council which was previously run by the Conservatives with 54 seats.

The full result from the council will not be known until later on Friday afternoon, as counting has not yet started in many of the seats.

Nigel Farage has taken a hit at the Conservatives after Reform’s election win at Runcorn and Helsby, telling Kemi Badenoch: “We want you to stay on as leader.”

Tory leader Badenoch conceded that the scale of the Conservative victory when these councils were last up for election in 2021 means losses are likely for the party.

It looks like some formerly Conservative strongholds could turn to Reform today.