'Nobody's laughing now at my ambition for PM'

NIGEL Farage vowed yesterday to kick Sir Keir Starmer out of Downing Street after his party stormed to victory in elections across the country.

- Martyn Brown

The Reform UK leader said he was gunning for the PM's job after Labour was swept aside in a humiliating by-election defeat.

Sir Keir's failure to get a grip on immigration and the decision to snatch winter fuel payments from millions of pensioners was blamed for the six-vote defeat in Runcorn and Helsby.

The Cheshire seat, deep in "red wall" territory, was won dramatically by Reform's Sarah Pochin following a nail-biting recount.

Labour MPs of all ranks demanded a reset of Sir Keir's premiership after the result spread panic through the party.

Mr Farage said "nobody is laughing now" at his ambition to enter No 10.

He said of the May 1 triumphs: "It's been a big night for us, beyond our wildest dreams.

"This is a Reform-quake and just goes to show that people want change." Mr Farage put a large part of his party's success down to Government failures on illegal immigration and said his party was the "official opposition".

Ex-Tory minister Dame Andrea Jenkyns, who defected to Reform, was elected Greater Lincolnshire's first mayor with a majority of nearly 40,000 over her former party.