Nigel Farage has claimed that Reform UK has eclipsed the Conservative Party as the dominant opposition force in Britain, following a series of unexpected wins in Thursday’s local elections.
Speaking from Runcorn, where Reform won a closely contested byelection by a margin of just six votes, the party leader described the results as a pivotal moment for his political movement.
“We’ve dug very deep into the Labour vote and, in other parts of England, we’ve dug deep into the Conservative vote. [After today], there’s no question, in most of the country, we are now the main opposition party to this government.”
Nigel Farage
The Runcorn and Helsby seat, previously a Labour stronghold with a majority exceeding 14,000 votes, saw a dramatic 17-point swing toward Reform UK. Labour’s grip was loosened amid growing discontent, while the Conservative vote plummeted to just 7%, down from 16% at the last general election. The Green Party narrowly missed overtaking the Tories, highlighting the Conservatives’ increasingly fragile position.
Meanwhile, in Greater Lincolnshire, Reform celebrated another major victory as Andrea Jenkyns, a former Conservative MP, claimed the newly established mayoralty with a decisive 44,000-vote lead. In a passionate address, Jenkyns praised her party’s momentum and offered a bold endorsement of its leader: “I take my hat off to our leader, Farage. I know one day he will make a great prime minister.”
Conservatives Struggle Amid Reform’s Rising Tide
By Friday morning, Reform had secured 23 council seats across England, while Labour suffered a net loss of 10 seats and the Conservatives shed seven. While Labour held onto key mayoralties in Doncaster, North Tyneside, and the West of England, the broader trend raised fresh doubts about its standing among working-class voters.
Professor John Curtice, a respected political analyst at Strathclyde University, noted the scale of the shift.
“We’ve never previously had a situation where, even at an interim stage, we’ve got a party other than Conservative or Labour not just with more votes, but with more [council] seats than anybody else.”
Professor John Curtice
In Runcorn, where Labour MP Mike Amesbury had vacated his seat following a conviction for assaulting a constituent, Reform leveraged public discontent around immigration, housing, and energy costs. Campaign materials emphasized issues such as small boat crossings and the proliferation of houses in multiple occupancy. Even local Turkish barbers were invoked in Reform’s narrative, alongside anger over cuts to the winter fuel allowance and concerns about early prisoner releases.
Labour’s re-elected Doncaster mayor, Ros Jones, acknowledged similar frustrations among her constituents. “They haven’t actually realised, because the people of Doncaster know how hard life can be, and it’s about delivering for them,” she said, referencing the national party’s handling of disability payments, fuel support, and national insurance hikes.
“It’s all very well for No 10 to say we’ve got to keep delivering. The problem is that it’s the stuff we’ve delivered that people hate.”
Unnamed Labour MP
The Conservative Party also faced a bruising night. In Greater Lincolnshire, they finished a distant second, while in the West of England mayoral contest, they came fourth behind Reform candidate Arron Banks. Banks, known for his controversial style, had earlier described the role he was contesting as a “meaningless job.”
Conservative Party co-chair Nigel Huddleston acknowledged the party’s deepening woes.
“This is always going to be difficult for us. We lost two-thirds of our MPs at last year’s general election. We do have the humility to recognise that we are in the recovery phase.”
Nigel Huddleston
Elsewhere, the Liberal Democrats signalled confidence in making significant gains in the southern heartlands, focusing on affluent regions like Devon, Oxfordshire, and Shropshire. The Green Party, despite losing the West of England mayoralty—a position polls had predicted they would win—remained hopeful of securing victories elsewhere as the day progressed.
Curtice summed up the political moment with a note of caution and perspective: “This is the first time when the two parties have been challenged from more than one direction at the same time.”
