Headlines
Farage's Reform UK Party wins mayoral and parliamentary post in surge of support
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on May 2, 2025
4 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
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Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on May 2, 2025
4 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, wins significant seats in UK elections, posing a threat to Labour and Conservatives. The political landscape shifts.
By Andrew MacAskill and Phil Noble
WIDNES, England (Reuters) - Nigel Farage's right-wing Reform UK won a fifth parliamentary seat, its first post as mayor and many positions on local councils in early election results on Friday which underscored the threat it poses to Britain's main two political parties.
The populist Reform, led by the Brexit campaigner Farage, hopes Thursday's English local elections will mark the start of the breakdown of a century of domination of British politics by the governing Labour Party and opposition Conservatives.
In the most closely watched contest, for the parliamentary seat of Runcorn and Helsby, Reform won by just six votes after a full recount was ordered. Labour had won the seat in last year's national election with a majority of almost 15,000 votes.
"It's been a huge night for Reform," Farage told reporters. "This is heartland Labour Party, their vote has collapsed and much of it has come to us."
The party also won the mayoral race in Greater Lincolnshire: Andrea Jenkyns, a former Conservative minister who defected to Reform after losing her seat last year, became its most powerful elected politician yet with responsibility for an area covering about a million people.
The victories underline the way Britain's political landscape has fractured since the general election. Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer won one of the largest parliamentary majorities in British history last summer but has suffered the fastest decline in popularity of any newly elected government.
Starmer, a former lawyer, lost support after his government raised taxes, cut benefits for the elderly, and got into a row over the use of donations, giving an opening to Farage, who is a friend of U.S. President Donald Trump.
"Reform UK look like the real deal this morning," said Keiran Pedley, Director of Politics at polling firm Ipsos. "That said, with increased support comes scrutiny. Where they do win, they will need to show they can deliver the change their voters want."
Voters cast their ballots on Thursday for more than 1,600 seats on local authorities across England and six high-profile mayoral elections, with results coming in throughout Friday.
Runcorn and Helsby was the only parliamentary seat up for grabs after the Labour lawmaker quit following his conviction for punching one of his constituents. It was Labour's 49th safest seat at last year's general election.
A Labour spokesperson said the results showed that voters "clearly expect the government to move faster" to change Britain after 14 years of Conservative rule.
MAYORAL CONTESTS
In her mayoral victory speech, Jenkyns pledged to bring an end to "soft touch Britain" and said asylum seekers should be held in tents, not in hotels as they often are in Britain.
"The rebuilding begins here ... we're going to have a Britain where we put British people first," she said.
Reform also came close to toppling Labour in three other mayoral contests in North Tyneside, the West of England, and Doncaster.
Labour's support in North Tyneside plunged 23 percentage points and by 11 percentage points in Doncaster compared to 2021.
Ros Jones, who won for Labour in Doncaster, said her party was being punished for the moves it had made to reduce spending, something the government says it must do to maintain financial stability.
Asked if Starmer's government was listening, Jones said: "I would say no."
Reform, which recently overtook Labour and the Conservatives in some national opinion polls, was leading in the total number of councillors elected with about 125 council seats declared.
Founded as the Brexit Party in 2018 and written off in its early years as a one-issue party only interested in limiting immigration, Reform has seen a surge in its support over recent months.
The party hopes the results on Friday will give it a chance to build up its local infrastructure and cement its place as the best positioned party to challenge Labour and the Conservatives at the next national election, expected in 2029.
(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill; additional reporting by William James, Catarina Demony and Elizabeth Piper, Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Kate Holton and Philippa Fletcher)
The article discusses Reform UK's recent election victories and their impact on British politics.
Reform UK is led by Nigel Farage, a prominent Brexit campaigner.
Reform UK won a fifth parliamentary seat and its first mayoral post, challenging the main political parties.
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