Nigel Farages Reform UK Party wins mayoral and parliamentary post in surge of support

Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK won a fifth parliamentary seat, its first post as mayor and many positions on local councils in early election results on Friday which underscored the threat it poses to Britain’s main two political parties.The populist Reform, led by the Brexit campaigner Farage, hopes Thursday’s English local elections will mark the start of the breakdown of a century of domination of British politics by the governing Labour Party and opposition Conservatives.In the most closely watched contest, for the parliamentary seat of Runcorn and Helsby, Reform won by just six votes after a full recount was ordered.Labour had won the seat in last year’s national election with a majority of almost 15,000 votes.“It’s been a huge night for Reform,” Farage told reporters.“This is heartland Labour Party, their vote has collapsed and much of it has come to us.”The party also won the mayoral race in Greater Lincolnshire: Andrea Jenkyns, a former Conservative minister who defected to Reform after losing her seat last year, became its most powerful elected politician yet with responsibility for an area covering about a million people.The victories underline the way Britain’s political landscape has fractured since the general election.Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer won one of the largest parliamentary majorities in British history last summer but has suffered the fastest decline in popularity of any newly elected government.Starmer, a former lawyer, lost support after his government raised taxes, cut benefits for the elderly, and got into a row over the use of donations, giving an opening to Farage, who is a friend of US President Donald Trump.“Reform UK look like the real deal this morning,” said Keiran Pedley, Director of Politics at polling firm Ipsos.

“That said, with increased support comes scrutiny.Where they do win, they will need to show they can deliver the change their voters w...