Local Elections 2025: Reform UK Sees Support Surge As It Leaves Labour And The Tories In Its Wake

It was a night (and day) of victories for Reform UK's frontman, Nigel Farage.Be in no doubt: this set of local elections was a resounding victory for Reform UK.After years of playing at fringe politics and fronting different parties, Nigel Farage has finally proven that the support for this iteration is not a flash in the pan.For the first time ever, Reform gained control of seven councils across England – Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire, Durham, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Kent and Derbyshire – as they claimed hundreds of previously Tory and Labour seats.The party also won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election after overturning a 14,696 Labour majority andsecured its first mayoral seat in Greater Lincolnshire.Labour just about held onto its three mayoral seats in North Tyneside, the West of England and Doncaster, but lost the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayoralty to the Tories.According to the BBC projected national share, Reform would have taken 30% of the vote had this been a general election – a result which confirms a recent poll which showed they are on course to be the largest party at Westminster.BREAKING BBC Projected National Share (What would have happened had this been a national contest)Reform 30%Labour 20%Lib Dems 17%Conservatives 15%Greens 11%Others 7%— Henry Zeffman (@hzeffman) May 2, 2025So it’s no wonder Clacton MP and Reform leader Farage, who did not even want to run to be an MP a year ago, was jubilant today.He told broadcasters: “Keir Starmer’s party has moved far away. We are now the party of the working man and woman.”He continued: “This marks the end of two party politics as we’ve known it for over a century – it is over, it is finished, it is gone.”“If you vote Reform, we get Reform,” he said while claiming his party “will win the next election.”Odds for him to become the next prime minister and succeed Starmer were also slashed this afternoon by Betfair, from 3/1 before the local elections to 5/2.By 5pm, Reform UK had gained nearly 550 seats, the Tories had lost nearly as many, while Labour – from a much smaller base – were down around 150.Polling expert Professor Sir John Curtice told the BBC: “If this continues, [Reform] could end up with some 800 or so seats across these [local] elections as a whole.”‘Reform are clearly coming after Labour’s lunch’Keir Starmer told broadcasters he “gets it” when discussing Labour’s lacklustre performance today.Although he looked downcast, the prime minister said he still stands by his “tough but right” decisions in government such as the unpopular cuts to winter fuel payments and welfare.He added: “We need to go further and we need to go faster on the change people want to see. And that’s what I’m determined to do.”But that attitude might not be enough.Former Labour adviser and now Labour peer Ayesha Hazarika said on her Times Radio show today that the party has to deliver – and “tell a convincing, confident story” about what it wants Britain to look like.She continued: “Reform are clearly coming after Labour’s lunch.”Hazarika noted that even voters in the mayoral seats which Labour held onto were expressing scepticism about the party on the doorstep.She said: “Labour prides itself on having a really good ground operation and I think it did in those other mayoral seats, but something went wrong in Runcorn and questions will be asked, should the prime minister have visited Runcorn? Could that have made a difference?”Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrives to visit to a defence contractor in Bedfordshire, England, Friday, May 2, 2025. Is it ‘the beginning of the end of the Conservative Party’?After nine of the 23 councils had been declared, the Tories had just 176 seats – meaning they lost 422 compared to 2021, and they were in third place after the Lib Dems and Reform.Farage boasted that Reform’s success signalled the “beginning of the end of the Conservative Party”.While it’s too early to say if that’s really true – the Tories do still have 121 MPs to Reform’s five – Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch was mysteriously absent most of the day.She only posted on social media once, hours after the results started to come in. She wrote on X: “These were always going to be a very difficult set of elections coming off the high of 2021, and our historic defeat last year – and so it’s proving.“The renewal of our party has only just begun and I’m determined to win back the trust of the public and the seats we’ve lost, in the years to come.”Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick, who is rumoured to be eyeing up the leadership post again, reiterated that they had “no pacts, no coalitions” with Reform despite saying exactly the opposite in a leaked recording a few weeks ago.Jenrick told reporters: “I want to put Reform out of business, I want to send Farage back to retirement.“The way we get back in the game is being better than Reform.”He added that it’s been a “tough” night for the Tories, and the public are clearly still “very angry and frustrated by the Conservative Party”.According to the BBC’s national vote share projection, it was the worst Tory performance ever.A good night for the Lib Dems and Greens Lib Dem leader Ed Davey told reporters he was “confident” that his party could take Shropshire Council, telling the public that support for the Tories – who have held the council for 16 years – was “melting”.As of mid-afternoon, the Lib Dems had taken 188 more council seats than it did in 2021, meaning it was technically in second place behind Reform.However it does not have full control of any councils just yet.The Greens, too, saw some modest improvement on their fortunes, getting 25 more council seats, taking their total to 46.However, considering how Reform has managed to harness the protest vote this time around, some saw the Greens’ performance as disappointing.Deputy leader of the Green Party, Zack Polanski, wrote on X:” Pretty vile to hear Labour MPs concluding they need to shift even further right.“Serving billionaire donors whilst destroying peoples living standards & our communities has created Reform. We need to grow our movement so Labour is more worried about The Green Party.”As Professor Curtice pointed out, “this is probably going to seem more like an election in which the Greens trod water than one in which they made significant advances”.Related...Reform UK’s Election Success Wasn’t About Blocking Closer EU Ties, Poll SaysKemi Badenoch Finally Speaks Up About Tory Local Election Losses As Reform Take First CouncilReform UK's First Mayor Walks Away From Sky News Interview In Clash Over 'Appropriate' Politics

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