Starmer suffers defeat in first by-election as PM as Reform take Runcorn and Helsby
Reform UK have won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election by just six votes in a blow to Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership.
The narrow victory for new MP Sarah Pochin saw Nigel Farage’s party taking a constituency which Labour won with a majority of almost 14,700 at the general election less than 12 months ago.
Politics Live: Could Reform finally get a toehold of power?
The by-election in the Cheshire seat was called after the previous MP Mike Amesbury resigned following his conviction for punching a constituent.
Ms Pochin won with 12,645 votes, compared to the 12,639 votes secured by Labour candidate Karen Shore, making it the closest by-election result since records began in 1945.
Speaking after the result was declared, Mr Farage told Sky News’ chief political correspondent Jon Craig that “no one knows” what Sir Keir Starmer stands for.
He also blamed Labour’s loss on higher taxes and migration, saying a “sense of fairness bordering on resentment” was noticeable on the doorstep.
He added that the result shows that “if you vote Conservative, you get Labour”, insisting his party is now the opposition to the government.
The vote in Runcorn is Sir Keir Starmer’s first by-election test as prime minister.
A Labour spokesperson said by-elections are “always difficult for the party in government and the events which led to this one being called made it even harder”.
They said: “While Labour has suffered an extremely narrow defeat, the shock is that the Conservative vote has collapsed.
Nigel Farage with Reform’s Runcorn candidate Sarah Pochin
“Moderate voters are clearly appalled by the talk of a Tory-Reform pact.”
Conservative candidate Sean Houlston came in third with 2,341 votes.
The Tories called the result “a damning verdict on Keir Starmer’s leadership which has led to Labour losing a safe seat”.
A spokesperson said: “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 £3500 jobs tax, families are being punished for their disastrous decisions in government. Now we know why Keir Starmer never bothered to visit the area.”
As well as the Runcorn by-election, voters on Thursday took part in contests to elect more than 1,600 councillors across 23 local authorities, along with four regional mayors and two local mayors.
In the first result of the night, Labour held on to the North Tyneside mayoralty by just 444 votes.
It then saw off Reform in the West of England and Doncaster to retain both mayoralties.
However Reform won the mayoralty in Greater Lincolnshire by a majority of 39,584.
Two other mayoralties up grabs are Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, and Hull and East Yorkshire.
Lead politics presenter Sophy Ridge, political editor Beth Rigby, and data and economics editor Ed Conway will be live on Friday morning to report and explain the results.
Politics
‘Shy’ Reform voters in Labour areas led to Farage’s party winning by-election, Harriet Harman says
“Shy” Reform voters in Labour areas led to Nigel Farage’s party winning the Runcorn by-election by just six votes, Labour peer Harriet Harman said.
The Runcorn and Helsby seat, created in 2024, went to Reform UK’s Sarah Pochin who defeated Labour candidate Karen Shore by six votes.
Reform overturned a 34.8% majority gained by former Labour MP Mike Amesbury last year before he stood down earlier this year after he punched a constituent on a night out.
It is the closest by-election result since records began in 1945.
Read more: Badenoch apologises to Tory councillors
Labour peer and former minister Baroness Harman told Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast: “If we’d have known it was so close, I, myself, would have gone on extra time there and got those six votes.
“So, there’s a real level of frustration and I’m sure there’ll be a post-mortem, but I think there’s a lot of talk about shy Reform voters in Labour areas.”
In the local elections, running at the same time, the Conservatives lost control of all 18 councils it was contesting, with Reform taking eight of those.
The party also won two of the six mayoral contests – Reform’s first two mayors.
Harriet Harman on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast
Baroness Harman said Labour now has “got to get on with delivering on the health service” and pointed out the minimum wage increase and breakfast clubs are only just being rolled out.
But she said the government also needs “more of a story” instead of just telling people to “bear with us” while it fixes what the Conservatives did.
“It seems to be that Farage has got no delivery, as yet, and all the story, whereas the government is really getting on with delivery, but it hasn’t got a big enough story about what that fits,” she said.
Read more: Reform’s political earthquake is now shaking our political system
An installation represents a bus stop during Reform UK’s local elections campaign launch in Birmingham. Pic: Reuters
She added that “Blue Labour” MPs – a socially Conservative wing of the Labour Party – “will be emboldened to press for further action” on issues like immigration, which they want to see a tougher stance on.
“There’s been grumbling about the big salience of the concerns of the winter fuel payment, but I don’t see there being any change on that,” she said.
Baroness Harman said she does not think the by-election and local election results were “utterly predictable” and will not lead to any splits or instability within the party.
Kemi Badenoch has apologised to Tory councillors who lost their seats after Reform made massive gains at the Conservatives’ expense in Thursday’s local elections.
The Conservative leader said she knew it was “disappointing” and that she was “sincerely sorry”, but added: “We are going to win those seats back – that is my job now.”
The Tories lost overall control of all 18 councils they had been in charge of that were up for election. There were 23 councils in the race in total.
Politics latest: Sky News analysis shows Reform surge in estimated national vote
A particularly bad loss was Buckinghamshire, which has been under Tory control since 1973 when local government was reorganised. The Conservatives lost overall control by just one seat after losing 29 seats.
Reform, which has never run in local elections before, gained eight councils from the Tories, one that had no overall control previously and one from Labour – the only Labour council up for grabs in this election.
Nigel Farage with the new Runcorn and Helsby MP Sarah Pochin. Pic: Reuters
The Lib Dems won Shropshire from the Tories, as well as Cambridgeshire and Oxfordshire – both of which had no overall control before.
The Conservatives had one win, with Paul Bristow being voted in as Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayor, previously held by Labour.
Reform’s first major win of the election was the Runcorn and Helsby by-election where Labour lost to Reform by six votes. It was triggered by ex-Labour MP Mike Amesbury resigning after his conviction for punching a constituent.
Sir Keir Starmer said he “gets” why his party suffered defeat there and the results show “we must deliver that change ever more quickly, we must go even further”.
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Tories suffer heavy defeats
Addressing the Conservatives’ abysmal results, Ms Badenoch said: “Other parties may be winning now, but we are going to show that we can deliver and that we are on course and recovering.
“But they [the public] are still not yet ready to trust us,” she added.
“We have a big job to do to rebuild trust with the public.
“That’s the job that the Conservative Party has given me, and I’m going to make sure that we get ourselves back to the place where we are seen as being a credible alternative to Labour.”
Read more:
Reform’s political earthquake is now shaking our political system
Reform wins two new mayoral contests
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Farage: ‘This is Reform-quake’
Ms Badenoch said Labour’s election results showed Sir Keir Starmer “is on course to be a one-term prime minister”.
However, when asked if she would still be leader at the next general election, Ms Badenoch dodged the question and said: “I’m not playing all these questions that the media loves to ask about my future.
“This is not about me.”
She insisted she was the right person to lead the Conservatives, as she was chosen by the party’s members.
“I told them it wouldn’t be easy, I told them it would require a renewal and rebuilding of our party,” she said.
“That doesn’t happen in six months. I’m trying to do something that no one has ever done before, which is take their party from such a historic defeat back into government in one term.”
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