Nigel Farage’s Reform snatches Labour safe seat after knife-edge vote

Nigel Farage’s insurgent Reform UK bagged what should be one of Labour’s safest House of Commons seats after a dramatic by-election recount saw the result come down to just six votes.

Reform candidate Sarah Pochin beat Labour’s hopeful in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election — overturning a 14,696 majority secured at the general election last July and granting a fresh boost to Farage’s right-wing populists.

After an early-morning recount at the DCBL stadium, Farage was jubilant, hailing a “huge night for Reform,” while Labour insisted by-elections are “always difficult for the party in government” and tried to shift attention to Conservative woes. Reform won by 12,645 votes to Labour’s 12,639.

“We are now the opposition party in the U.K. to Labour, and the Tories are a waste of space,” Farage told reporters in Runcorn.

The results of the by-election vote — held after the previous Labour MP was convicted of assaulting a constituent — came as the counts from a slate of local elections in England began to trickle in.

There were some limited scraps of relief for nervous Labour strategists panicked by the rise of Reform UK in the polls. Labour won key mayoral races in North Tyneside, the West of England and Doncaster — though Reform came second in all three.

Among the results still to come is the Greater Lincolnshire mayoral race, where Reform’s Andrea Jenkyns — a former Conservative MP who jumped ship — looks on course to win.

The Conservatives, in national government just last year before a kicking in the general election, are braced for a torrid day.

There are 22 local councils to be declared Friday afternoon, with the vast majority of the 1,641 council seats in contention still to be announced. These seats were last fought in 2021, at the height of the then-Tory government’s bounce in popularity over a successful Covid vaccine program.

A Labour spokesperson said of the Runcorn result Friday morning: “By-elections are always difficult for the party in government and the events which led to this one being called made it even harder.

“Voters are still rightly furious with the state of the country after 14 years of failure and clearly expect the government to move faster.”

The Conservatives shot back in their own statement: “This result is a damning verdict on Keir Starmer’s leadership which has led to Labour losing a safe seat.”