Hard Right Wins Local UK Polls in Blow to Starmer

Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour party on Friday in local elections that dealt a blow to Britain's two establishment parties.

- Agence France-Presse

LONDON:

Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty.

The group's strong showing--overturning a huge Labour majority in one of the party's safest parliamentary seats--continues momentum seen at last year's general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics.

Brexit champion Farage said Reform's first-ever by-election win and Starmer's first electoral loss since he took office last July showed his party was now the party of opposition in most of the country.

"This is heartland Labour Party. Their vote has collapsed, and much of it's come to us," he said. "And that does away with the sort of media narrative that somehow it's just us versus the Conservatives. It's not. This is a whole different politics."