Reform wins the Runcorn and Helsby by-election by just six votes – one of the closest parliamentary elections ever. Sarah Pochin overturned Labour’s huge majority of
to become Reform’s fifth MP after Labour demanded a recount.
Elsewhere, Reform also won its first mayoral election in Greater Lincolnshire for Dame Andrea Jenkins, and Labour onlu just narrowly held three mayoral races in North Tyneside, the West of England, and Doncaster – with Reform second in all three of those elections. Dame Andrea Jenkins won in every area of the county except one with a total of 104,133 votes. Rob Waltham, for the Conservative Party, came second with 64,585 votes.Speaking at the count at Grimsby Town Hall, she said it marked a “new dawn in British politics”.
Dame Andrea will now represent about 1.1 million people who live in the combined county for the next four years, winning 42% of the vote, said: “We’re going to have a Britain where we put you and your families first. Now that Reform is in a place of power we can help reshape Britain. I want to ensure that Lincolnshire is the best place to bring up your children, to retire and live. My ultimate goal is that Lincolnshire thrives.“
County Durham could follow Northumberland in electing a string of Reform councillors could have some validity as the first announced Durham County Council result sees Reform win with 36% of the vote, taking it from Labour.
It’s not just Labour’s loss in Runcorn that is worrying some of the Labour backbenchers as the party seems to be under-performing relative to its poor local election results in 2021. It has lost ground in Northumberland and failed to capitalise on Conservative unpopularity in Staffordshire and now the backbenchers on Labour’s left have lost faith and are now speaking on the record about the poor performance of the Labour cabinet.
“The Labour leadership must urgently change course. It should start by ditching the plans to cut disability benefits and increase taxes on the wealthiest instead” said Richard Burgon, a shadow minister under Jeremy Corbyn, despite the fact that this is something that polls badly.
“They are ignoring the issues of migration and high taxation which is what has caused the result and I fear that Momentum will become increasingly problematic, making the position worse” said another, speaking off the record, “…the message is clear, yet it’s being ignored by many MPs from across the party, everyone agrees that when you talk to people on the doorstep, the main issues are immigration, winter fuel cuts, net zero, fear of cuts to disability payments, and failure to police the borders, but the front bench are deaf. Voters are still rightly furious with the state of the country after 14 years of failure by the Tories and clearly expected the Labour government to move faster with the Plan for Change. Whilst the Conservative vote has collapsed, the shock is that Labour support has suffered an extremely serious defeat.“
One Labour pensioner at the count said “It’s ridiculous, they cut winter fuel payments and pay pensioners who have worked their entire life and paid into the system £6,500 in pensions, but if you enter illegally across the channel, the Government will pay you £36.500 when you’ve never contributed and when you’re here an an economic migrant, it’s all broken and we voted Labour in to change this, but they don’t seem to care either, it’s no wonder we lost”.
Farage, MP for Clacton in Essex, said “The result shows Reform are not a protest party, even though there’s a lot to protest about…..thirty years ago, Parliament was full of people like Sarah Pochin that had successful careers, as she’s had in business, in politics, in judiciary and now there are very few of them. Reform is putting candidates up, getting people elected with real life experience and that’s what voters want.”
The Conservatives, whose candidate Sean Houlston came a distant third, called the by-election result a “damning verdict” on Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership saying “Just 10 months ago Labour won an enormous majority, including in this seat with 52% of the vote, but their policies have been a punch in the face for the people of Runcorn. …..Snatching Winter Fuel Payments from vulnerable pensioners, pushing farmers to the brink with their vindictive Family Farms Tax and hammering families with a £3,500 jobs tax, families are being punished for their disastrous decisions in government.”
