Runcorn by-election on a knife-edge as recount takes place
Just four votes are thought to separate Reform and Labour in a seat which Sir Keir Starmer’s party held with a majority of almost 14,700 in 2024.
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK could be on the brink of inflicting defeat on Labour in the first by-election test for Sir Keir Starmer.
A full recount is taking place in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election contest, with just four votes between Reform in first place and Labour.
Mr Farage said: “Reform UK have won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election by four votes!
“Labour have demanded a recount. We are very confident we have won.”
It is a dramatic development in a seat which Labour held with a majority of 14,696 in the 2024 general election and came as Reform made gains in local contest across England.
Acting returning officer Stephen Young said: “Because of the close proximity of the parties, we have agreed to do a full recount of all the ballot papers.”
The Runcorn and Helsby by-election was triggered when former Labour MP Mike Amesbury quit after admitting punching a constituent.
The 2024 result suggests it should be a safe Labour seat – Amesbury won 53% of the vote – but if the recount upholds Reform’s lead then Sarah Pochin will be the new MP.
Turnout in the seat was 46.33%, with 32,740 votes cast.
Elsewhere, more than 1,600 council seats were up for grabs across 23 local authorities, along with four regional mayors and two local mayors.
Labour lost seats to Reform in Northumberland while in other parts of the country Mr Farage’s party made ground at the expense of the Conservatives.
In her first set of elections as Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch’s party is set for a “battering”, with the prospect of losing seats to both Reform and the Liberal Democrats on opposing sides of the political spectrum.
Reform’s Dame Andrea Jenkyns, a former Conservative minister, appears on course to win the Greater Lincolnshire mayoral race.
Reform look set to take control of Staffordshire County Council after taking 24 of the 30 seats to be counted overnight, with Conservatives winning the other six.
It means when counting resumes later on Friday, Reform need to win just eight more seats to have a majority on the council.
Mr Farage said he wanted to “smash the two-party system”.
Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice said the results showed a “seismic shift going on tonight in British politics, where Reform is is taking huge chunks of votes and seats from both the two main parties”.
He told Sky News the party was also “absolutely smashing it” in traditionally Conservative Lincolnshire.
Labour Party chairwoman Ellie Reeves said the elections “were always going to be a challenge” for her party because they were largely in areas “dominated by the Conservatives, often for decades”.
She acknowledged voters “aren’t yet fully feeling the benefit” of changes brought in since Sir Keir took office.
“However the results turn out this evening, this Labour government will go further and faster in turning our country around and giving Britain the future it deserves,” she said.
There was some good news for Labour as the party held the West of England mayoralty, with Helen Godwin beating Reform’s Arron Banks by 5,945 votes, with the Green Party’s Mary Page in third.
The party held the North Tyneside mayoralty, although with a majority of just 444 ahead of Reform in second place.
In Doncaster, Labour held on to the mayoralty with a majority of 698 over Reform, with the Conservatives in third.
After her narrow victory, the newly re-elected Doncaster mayor Ros Jones hit out at Sir Keir over decisions to means-test the winter fuel allowance, hike employers’ national insurance contributions and squeeze welfare.
She told the BBC: “I think the results here tonight will demonstrate that they need to be listening to the man, woman and businesses on the street, and actually deliver for the people, with the people.”
Conservative frontbencher Helen Whately said “we know we’re going to have a really hard night” across the country because 2021 was a “high watermark” for the party under Boris Johnson.
The shadow work and pensions secretary told BBC’s Newsnight: “We’re going to get a real battering in these elections.”
Shadow communities secretary Kevin Hollinrake acknowledged the party was on course to lose around 500 councillors.
He told the BBC: “We thought we’d lose half our seats.”
If it was worse, “that would be very disappointing”, he added.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said: “We are expecting to see big gains against the Conservatives in their former Middle England heartlands.”
The Green Party was also hoping for success in local contests, with co-leader Carla Denyer saying: “We are taking seats from both the Conservatives and Labour up and down the country as voters, understandably, move away from the tired old parties that have let us all down.”
