Nigel Farage’s party, Reform UK, has won control of its first county councils on what is a historic day for the party. Three county councils in England are now held by Reform – Staffordshire, Lincolnshire, and Durham as votes continue to be counted in the local elections.
Staffordshire County Council confirmed on Friday afternoon that Reform had won the 32 seats needed for a majority on its council. This was followed this afternoon by a confirmation that Reform had also won full control of Lincolnshire County Council. Both councils had previously been held by the Conservatives, and the results will likely fuel criticism of Tory leader Kemi Badenoch six months into her role.
In Lincolnshire, where the County Council had been led by a Tory since 2005, reform gained 30 seats, with the conservatives losing 26, with 36 out of 70 council seats so far declared this afternoon.
Reform UK won its third council this afternoon after taking control of Durham county council, winning 49 of the 71 seats. It’s a dramatic turnaround for the party, who previously had just four councillors in the Labour-controlled county.
One of those elected as a new Reform County Councillor is former Newcastle-born GB News presenter, Darren Grimes, who recently left the broadcaster. He won his council seat in County Durham after securing 49.7 per cent of the vote. He had encouraged voters to “send Westminster a message that they’ll never forget”.
A 2012 Olympic boxing champion Luke Campbell announced his decision to stand for the party in February. Campbell, who is a gold medalist for Britain, is Reform’s candidate in the mayoral election for Hull and East Yorkshire, where a mayoral result is projected to be a win for Reform.
It comes as the party won its first ever parliamentary by-election in North-West England. Farage’s party won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election by just six votes overnight, wiping out a Labour majority after a dramatic recount. Former Conservative Councillor Sarah Pochin overturned a majority of 14,696 to take the Cheshire seat for reform in what was Sir Keir Starmer’s first major electoral test. Pochin becomes Reform’s fifth MP, with a massive 17.4 swing from Labour in what has long been considered one of the party’s most secure seats.
Nigel Farage is set to make an announcement at 3pm today, declaring earlier that victory in Runcorn and Helsby provided proof that Reform is now “the opposition party to this Labour government.”
“With this and other results tonight, it’s clear that if you vote Conservative, you will get Labour. But if you vote Reform, you get Reform,” Farage told his two million X followers.
In response, Labour leader Starmer said, “I get it,” while pledging to go “further and faster” on bringing about changes. In another success for reform, Dame Andrea Jenkyns also won the mayoral race in Greater Lincolnshire, succeeding her closest rival by almost 40,000 votes. Jenkyns received a staggering 42 per cent of the vote, with 103,133 votes, with the Conservatives trailing at 26.1 per cent.
Presently, county council results point to Reform being on its way to seize hundreds of seats overall in rural areas, largely at the expense of the Conservatives, while also inflicting damage on Labour. Yesterday, Starmer had urged UK voters to vote Labour, saying that “the choice is clear.”
He claimed that the choice was between “Labour councillors, Mayors and MPs working together to bring change to Britain. Or chaos and division with parties who have no plan for change.”
Speaking this afternoon, former Conservative Minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said the Conservatives must “work together” with Reform UK. The GB News host told BBC Radio World at One: “We will inevitably do deals with Reform in those councils that are hung between Conservative and Reform.
“In terms of policy, there’s very little difference between the Conservative Party and Reform. It’s basically a matter of personality.”
He continued: “I think we need to work together. (…) Conservatism is having a fantastic 24 hours.”