Reform’s Sarah Pochin was declared winner of the seat of Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by six votes after a recount. Leader of Reform Nigel Farage told journalists that the victory represented a “loss of confidence” in the governing Labour Party.

Nigel Farage's Reform UK has made big gains in English local elections, cementing it as a prime challenger to Britain's traditional main parties. It won 677 of around 1,600 seats contested on Thursday across a clutch of mainly Tory-held councils last contested in 2021.

Turnout for local authority elections tends to be lower than for general elections, at about 30 per cent. For the UK’s general election last July, 59.8 per cent headed to the polls. Reform UK’s Andrea Jenkyns won the Greater Lincolnshire mayoralty, in which just 29.9 per cent of the electorate turned out to vote.