Reform UK has gained two more council seats from the Conservatives, while comfortably holding a seat in one of Labour’s traditional heartlands.
In King’s Lynn and West Norfolk, Reform UK gained both Heacham and Snettisham from the Conservatives. Paul Powers won Heacham with 289 votes (37.8%), ahead of the Liberal Democrats on 219 (28.7%), the Conservatives on 163 (21.3%) and Labour on 93 (12.2%). In nearby Snettisham, Reform county councillor Ben Griffin won the seat with 35.1% of the vote.
This double gain is another blow to Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives in a part of Norfolk where Reform UK has already made major advances. At May’s county council elections, Reform UK became the largest party in Norfolk, winning 40 of the 84 seats and taking control of the council as minority administration.
But perhaps the most significant result came in South Tyneside, where Reform UK held Harton ward. Katie Groom was elected with 628 votes, or 35.3%, beating Labour’s Neil Maxwell by 274 votes. Labour finished on 354 votes, or 19.9%, with the Greens on 312 votes, or 17.5%
South Tyneside should by all rights be a Labour stronghold. Until May, Labour had dominated the council for decades. Then Reform UK swept to an extraordinary 41 out of 54 seats, reducing Labour from 27 councillors to just one.
The Harton by-election shows that this was no one-off protest. Reform UK’s local base remains strong, while Labour is still miles from recovery. There was a slight uplift in Labour’s vote share compared with May’s council elections, but the much-discussed “Burnham bounce” has plainly done nothing to make Labour competitive in a ward it once took for granted. Labour still finished more than 15 percentage points behind Reform UK.
That should worry Labour. Even with a new Prime Minister, a honeymoon period, and the full weight of the political establishment behind them, Labour cannot get close to Reform in places it used to dominate.
There was more evidence of Labour’s collapse in Hengoed, Caerphilly, where Plaid Cymru held the seat with 49.9%. Reform UK came second on 36.3%, while Labour was pushed into a distant third on just 10.1%.
All these results point to the fact that Reform UK is not merely gaining voters from the Tories. We are also replacing Labour as the main opposition in working-class communities across Britain - and, increasingly, winning them outright.
In King’s Lynn and West Norfolk, Reform UK gained both Heacham and Snettisham from the Conservatives. Paul Powers won Heacham with 289 votes (37.8%), ahead of the Liberal Democrats on 219 (28.7%), the Conservatives on 163 (21.3%) and Labour on 93 (12.2%). In nearby Snettisham, Reform county councillor Ben Griffin won the seat with 35.1% of the vote.
This double gain is another blow to Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives in a part of Norfolk where Reform UK has already made major advances. At May’s county council elections, Reform UK became the largest party in Norfolk, winning 40 of the 84 seats and taking control of the council as minority administration.
But perhaps the most significant result came in South Tyneside, where Reform UK held Harton ward. Katie Groom was elected with 628 votes, or 35.3%, beating Labour’s Neil Maxwell by 274 votes. Labour finished on 354 votes, or 19.9%, with the Greens on 312 votes, or 17.5%
South Tyneside should by all rights be a Labour stronghold. Until May, Labour had dominated the council for decades. Then Reform UK swept to an extraordinary 41 out of 54 seats, reducing Labour from 27 councillors to just one.
The Harton by-election shows that this was no one-off protest. Reform UK’s local base remains strong, while Labour is still miles from recovery. There was a slight uplift in Labour’s vote share compared with May’s council elections, but the much-discussed “Burnham bounce” has plainly done nothing to make Labour competitive in a ward it once took for granted. Labour still finished more than 15 percentage points behind Reform UK.
That should worry Labour. Even with a new Prime Minister, a honeymoon period, and the full weight of the political establishment behind them, Labour cannot get close to Reform in places it used to dominate.
There was more evidence of Labour’s collapse in Hengoed, Caerphilly, where Plaid Cymru held the seat with 49.9%. Reform UK came second on 36.3%, while Labour was pushed into a distant third on just 10.1%.
All these results point to the fact that Reform UK is not merely gaining voters from the Tories. We are also replacing Labour as the main opposition in working-class communities across Britain - and, increasingly, winning them outright.
