LONDON — Nigel Farage’s hard-right party, Reform UK, delivered a surprise in British politics by seizing a parliamentary seat from the ruling Labour Party and clinching hundreds of local council positions from the opposition Conservatives. These developments, announced on Friday, signal what Farage has claimed is a pivotal shift aimed at challenging the longstanding political control of the UK by the two major parties.
The Reform victory came in the Runcorn and Helsby parliamentary seat located in northwest England, where Reform’s Sarah Pochin narrowly defeated Labour’s candidate Karen Shore by just six votes following a tense recount. This outcome is a major setback for Labour, who had previously secured this district comfortably in a nationwide election last year. A by-election was necessitated when the former Labour MP, Mike Amesbury, resigned after a conviction for assaulting a constituent.
Farage described this win as a landmark occasion, underscoring Reform’s ability to outmaneuver both Labour and the Conservative Party, which generally sits to the right of Labour. He proclaimed that this election outcome signals the decline of the traditional two-party system that has dominated British politics for over a century.
The Runcorn win increases Reform UK’s representation to five parliamentary seats out of 650, compared to Labour’s 403 and the Conservatives’ 121. Despite having captured only about 14% of the vote in the 2024 national election, Reform UK is gaining momentum. Current national polls suggest its popularity rivals that of Labour and the Conservatives, and the party aims to replace the Conservatives as the leading right-wing party ahead of the forthcoming national election, anticipated by 2029.
The local elections held the previous Thursday across various parts of England posed a significant challenge for the Labour government under Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Less than a year after its overwhelming victory, the center-left administration is struggling to win back its base. The Labour agenda has boosted minimum wages, enhanced workers’ rights, and funneled additional funds into the public health system, while also increasing business taxes and reducing welfare support.
Starmer acknowledged voter dissatisfaction, stating, “I am determined that we will go further and faster on the change that people want to see.”
For the Conservatives, the election results were even more bruising. Reform UK had a strong showing in the elections, capturing more than 600 of the 1,600 available council seats, primarily at the expense of the Conservatives. Control shifted in key local authorities such as Staffordshire, Lincolnshire, Durham, and Kent, areas previously dominated by the Tories. Former Conservative MP Andrea Jenkyns, now with Reform, won the mayoralty of Greater Lincolnshire, while Reform also gained control of the Hull mayoralty. Meanwhile, Labour retained three mayoralties, and the Conservatives secured just one.
These successes pose new challenges for Reform UK, now tasked with addressing everyday political issues like transportation, waste management, and infrastructure maintenance.
Facing potential turmoil within her party, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch conceded that voters remain skeptical of the Tories one year after being voted out of power.
The electoral outcome portrays a fragmented political landscape, challenging the long-standing dominance of the UK’s two major parties. This snapshot, albeit partial, reflects voter sentiment with notable omissions, such as elections in London, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Local election turnouts tend to be lower than national ones.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats made substantial advances in the south and southwest of England, drawing affluent, socially liberal voters away from the Conservatives.
Reform UK, under Farage’s leadership, connects his populist ideas with policies echoing themes from U.S. politics, such as strong immigration controls. Farage, a pivotal figure in the Brexit movement, remains a polarizing presence in British politics, known for his critical stance on immigration.
John Curtice, a political scientist at the University of Strathclyde, observed that Britain’s political scene, traditionally dominated by two major parties, has become more fractured, with Reform UK posing significant challenges to both Labour and Conservatives. “The question mark on that has just got three or four times bigger,” Curtice commented about the future of two-party dominance.