REFORM UK have nearly 500 councillors after the English local elections saw them annihilate the Tories and emerge as a serious threat to Labour.
Nigel Farage’s party also overturned a massive Labour majority in the Runcorn by-election, sparked by the resignation of an MP who was caught punching a constituent.
After final results were in from 16 of the 23 English councils holding elections, Reform had almost 500 councillors, after gaining 476 seats, with the Liberal Democrats in second place with 237, up 86.
The Conservatives had 199 seats, down 411, and Labour 56, after losing 137 seats, leaving Sir Keir Starmer’s party one behind the Greens, who were up 29, while independents had 55 councillors, down 61.
Farage hailed the results as the “beginning of the end of the Conservative Party” as he bragged that Reform had had “the Labour Party for lunch”.
Speaking in Bedfordshire, Keir Starmer said: “What I want to say is, my response is we get it.
“We were elected in last year to bring about change.”
Labour suffered a seismic defeat in Durham County Council, where they lost their status the largest party to Reform in what has historically been one of their heartlands.
The Prime Minister added: “The reason that we took the tough but right decisions in the budget was because we inherited a broken economy.”
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch meanwhile apologised to councillors who had lost their seats, saying she was “sincerely sorry”.
“We have a big job to do to rebuild trust with the public,” she said.
“That’s the job that the Conservative party has given me and I am going to make sure that we get ourselves back to the place where we are seen as the credible alternative to Labour.”
Ed Davey said the LibDems had “replaced the Conservatives as the party of middle England”, after winning big in the traditional Tory shires.
He said: “Lifelong Conservative voters have put their faith in the Liberal Democrats because they are appalled by the Conservatives lurching to the extremes and cosying up to Nigel Farage.”
