Reform sweep to victory across councils in local elections

Reform UK has swept to victory across more than half a dozen English councils, as Nigel Farage said his party had eaten “Labour for lunch” and “wiped out” the Conservatives in parts of England.

The party has taken control of seven local councils, winning hundreds of seats across localities from Durham to Kent and toppled a 14,000-strong Labour majority in a parliamentary by-election.

The Lib Dems have also made gains at the Tories’ expense in Devon, becoming the largest party on the council, while the Conservatives also lost control in Warwickshire amid a Reform surge.

Speaking in County Durham on Friday afternoon, Mr Farage said the results marked the “beginning of the end of the Conservative Party” and “the end of two-party politics”.

He said Reform had had “the Labour Party for lunch” and “wiped out” the Conservatives in parts of England.

Votes were continuing to be counted in council and mayoral contests on Friday afternoon.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch told Conservative councillors who lost their seats she was “sincerely sorry” and that while the public are “fed up” with Labour, they are not yet ready to trust the Tories.

“We have a big job to do to rebuild trust with the public,” she said.

However amid the council losses the Tories took a mayoralty from Labour, with victory for ex-MP Paul Bristow in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

The position had been Labour held since 2021, but their candidate Anna Smith came in third behind the Lib Dems.

The picture on local councils has been emerging through Friday, after Reform’s victory by just six votes in Runcorn and Helsby set a new record for the smallest majority at a parliamentary by-election since the Second World War.

Amesbury won 53% of the vote less than a year ago at the general election – and the defeat, along with Reform gains in other Labour heartlands, will cause unease in Downing Street.

Speaking to reporters during a visit to Bedfordshire on Friday following the result, Sir Keir said: “What I want to say is, my response is we get it.

“We were elected in last year to bring about change.”

Labour also lost their status as the biggest party on Durham County Council, as Reform took control of the patch in the North East.

Labour MPs including Diane Abbott and Brian Leishman publicly called on the Government to change course following the Runcorn result, arguing that voters had wanted an end to austerity but faced further cuts.

Sir Keir was asked by reporters whether he would reconsider unpopular policy changes, such as means-testing the winter fuel payment, amid murmurs of backbench discontent in the wake of the results.

“The reason that we took the tough but right decisions in the budget was because we inherited a broken economy,” he told Sky News.

“Maybe other prime ministers would have walked past that, pretended it wasn’t there… I took the choice to make sure our economy was stable.”