Reform UK’s Sarah Pochin after the party won the seat in Runcorn and Helsby. Getty Images
One of the many remarkable features of a remarkable set of elections is that virtually nowhere in the various councils and mayoralties — nor in the razor-edge by-election in Runcorn — has there been a traditional straight fight between Labour and Conservatives.
Instead, it’s been, most commonly, Labour versus Reform, sometimes the Tories trying to compete with Nigel Farage’s insurgents, and some scraps in the south and west of England between the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens.