In a historic parliamentary by-election, Reform’s Sarah Pochin won Runcorn and Helsby by just six votes, a majority of just 0.02% and a swing to Reform from Labour of 17.4 percentage points.
Labour’s loss of its 49th-safest seat was decided by scenes of high drama.
The initial count put Labour ahead by just 10 votes. Following a review of ballots, Reform then claimed that they had won by four votes.
A full recount followed and the rest is history.
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Recriminations within Labour are certain to follow with tiny campaigning mistakes inflated to huge consequences.
Close contests were the order of the night as rival parties, led by Reform, chased down Labour targets.
In two council by-elections, Labour retained its seats by a single vote.
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Follow mayoral election results as they come in
Elsewhere, Labour had other close scrapes with defeat.
Karen Clark was run close in the race to be North Tyneside’s mayor, her winning margin just 444 votes.
Ros Jones, the longstanding Labour mayor of Doncaster, was re-elected by a margin of 698 votes over Reform’s Alexander Jones.
Her victory speech referenced the need for her party leader to listen more to voters.
Labour faced a real struggle to retain the mayoralty for the West of England Combined Authority following the arrest and suspension of Dan Norris, the current mayor.
Over 200,000 votes were cast, but just 10,000 separated the three leading candidates, Labour, Reform, and Green, respectively.
Helen Godwin scraped home for Labour, but she won with just 25% of the vote.th
But it was Reform that secured victory in the race to be the first Greater Lincolnshire mayor.
Both major parties have given support to the extension of elected mayors governing combined local authorities.
Now, it is Reform’s Andrea Jenkyns, a former Conservative MP, who will give her new party a much stronger voice in local government.
But she will be joined by hundreds of new Reform councillors whose election will be confirmed later on Friday.
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First Reform UK mayoral win
Tories’ grip of English shires is broken
In Northumberland, the Conservatives lost control of the council with Reform now in second place.
Counting in Staffordshire, which the Conservatives won easily in the 2021 election as it rode the post-COVID bounce, showed Reform winning all the seats in Tamworth.
With similar results sure to appear throughout Friday, the spotlight will turn on Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch to explain why so many of her councillors have been defeated and the party has seen its grip of the English shires broken.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch. Pics: PA
Worse may follow if the Liberal Democrats build on the momentum of the last general election and now capture Conservative councils.
There is a chance the Conservatives will be overtaken by the Liberal Democrats as the second party of local government in terms of council control.
But the headlines belong to Reform.
It has successfully tapped into the public mood of disillusionment and distrust of the two parties that have dominated British politics.
Friday’s counting of local election votes will show that many voters have turned their backs on both Labour and the Conservatives.
