Polls have closed in a series of elections across England which could see Nigel Farage’s Reform UK deal blows to both Labour and the Conservatives.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour faces a battle to hold on to the Runcorn and Helsby seat in the Commons, with Reform hoping to take a seat the governing party won convincingly at the 2024 general election.
Kemi Badenoch faces her first test as Tory leader with the party braced for a difficult set of results, with both Reform and the Liberal Democrats hopeful of stealing council seats last contested in 2021 at the height of Boris Johnson’s popularity with Conservative voters.
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 Reform’s Sarah Pochin is the bookmakers’ favourite to secure a by-election victory.
More than 1,600 council seats are up for grabs across 23 local authorities, while four regional mayors and two local mayors will be elected.
Mr Farage said he wanted to “smash the two-party system”.
He said: “We have fought a strong campaign. The two major parties are more fearful of the results tonight than we are.”
But Sir Keir said voters faced a clear choice between Labour politicians “working together to bring change to Britain” or “chaos and division with parties who have no plan for change”.
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.
Mrs Badenoch said the Tories would offer “better services and lower taxes” but she has acknowledged her party faces a tough set of results.
A Tory spokesman said: “Tonight will be the first real test of Keir Starmer’s Labour government, 10 months after they won an unprecedented majority at the general election.
“The Conservatives have started on the process of renewing our party under Kemi Badenoch’s leadership.
“But we also have always been clear that these would be tough elections for the party – defending an incredibly high watermark from 2021 when we took two-thirds of all seats.
“If the 2024 general election was replicated on today’s battleground, we would lose control of almost every single council.”
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said Mrs Badenoch faced “a reckoning at the ballot box as former Conservative voters across the home counties rally behind the Liberal Democrats”.
He 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.”
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