Local elections results live: Reform wins control of three councils as Starmer issues statement

Yahoo

02-05-2025

Keir Starmer admitted Labour's defeat to Reform in the Runcorn by-election by just six votes was 'disappointing', as Nigel Farage's party also took control of three councils in the local elections.
Reform leader Farage said it had been a "huge night" for his party, after they snatched the safe seat from Labour following a recount.
Reform also won its first-ever local authority, taking control of Staffordshire County Council, before securing wins with Lincolnshire Council and Durham Council.
Polling expert Sir John Curtice said the result showed Farage's party is 'in business' in what is expected to be a successful set of local results for Reform - largely at the expense of Labour and the Tories.
Tory party co-chairman Nigel Huddleston said that while his party had expected a bad night, it had been 'a terrible night for Labour'. Keir Starmer, reacting to the knife-edge by-election defeat, insisted he was determined to go 'further and faster' in delivering change.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said in a post of Twitter: "These were always going to be a very difficult set of elections coming off the high of 2021, and our historic defeat last year - and so it's proving.
"The renewal of our party has only just begun, and I'm determined to win back the trust of the public and the seats we've lost, in the years to come."
Reform also added dozens of councillors in local elections and won its first mayoral election in Greater Lincolnshire. Local elections were held on Thursday across 23 councils in England, with people also voting in six mayoral elections.
Follow the live blog from Yahoo News for all the latest local election updates:
Reform has won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election by just six votes, ousting Labour
Reform has taken its third council, securing a majority in Durham as well as Staffordshire County Council and Lincolnshire County Countil
Dame Andrea Jenkyns secures a first ever Reform mayoral win - in Greater Lincolnshire
Labour wins mayoral races in North Tyneside, the West of England and Doncaster
Reform continues to make gains from Labour and the Tories with final results expected at 7pm
Paul Bristow has won the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough mayoral contest with a majority of more than 10,500 over Reform's Ryan Coogan, with Anna Smith third for Labour, Liberal Democrat Lorna Dupre fourth and Green Bob Ensch fifth.
It means the Conservatives regain the post, which they took in 2017, with Labour winning four years ago.
A number of MPs and campaigners from within Labour's own ranks have spoken out, warning that the government's cuts to the winter fuel payment, disability benefits and national insurance hikes have gone down badly with voters.
Here's what some Labour members have said so far:
After narrowly securing a victory, the Mayor for Doncaster, Ros Jones, said the prime minister to "listen to the people" following the election results
Diane Abbott posted on X: "Labour leadership saying the party will go further and faster in the same direction. They don't seem to understand that it is our current direction that is the problem"
MP for Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵrc Steve Witherden said Labour needs to "offer real hope by reversing ever-widening inequality"
Former shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon warned that the winter fuel allowance and disability benefits cuts mean "the leadership is driving away our own voters"
Liverpool West MP Ian Byrne said Labour's official response to the losses had been "tone deaf", and the government risks "rolling the red carpet out to Reform at the next general election"
Former shadow environment and employment secretary Rachael Maskell called for a "return to a Labour-economic plan" amid anger over PIP cuts
The Liberal Democrats have narrowly failed to win control of Devon County Council but were certain to be the biggest party after winning 26 seats, with just four to declare, and 31 needed for a majority.
Reform secured 16 seats, the Conservatives and Greens six each and independents two.
The Lib Dems previously had just 10 seats on the council, which was controlled by the Conservatives with 40.
Labour losing one of its safest seats is what happens when the government cuts disability benefits and panders to an anti-migrant rhetoric, a former MP from the party has said.
Zarah Sultana, who was suspended from Labour after she voted to scrap the two-child benefit cap, wrote on Blue Sky that the by-election result "isn't the change people voted for and it shows".
The independent MP wrote: "Labour losing one of its safest seats shows what happens when a government cuts disability benefits and winter fuel payments, keeps the two-child benefit cap, and panders to anti-migrant rhetoric: Reform wins and always will.
"This isn't the change people voted for and it shows."
Reform has taken control of a third council.
The party's candidates took more than 50 seats at Durham County Council, where Labour was previously the biggest party.
Party leader Nigel Farage is expected to visit Durham on Friday afternoon.
Conservative candidate Paul Bristow is on track to win the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough mayoral contest, which Labour had held since 2021.
The former Peterborough MP was more than 8,000 votes ahead of Reform UK with results in from five of the six authorities in the region, with just Cambridge City to come.
Labour's Nik Johnson won in 2021, but was not standing this time, and party candidate Anna Smith was trailing in fourth place, behind the Liberal Democrats, with the final result to declare.
Mr Johnson was behind the Conservatives after the first round four years ago, but picked up Lib Dem second preference votes in the second round.
But the Conservatives have since changed the system for electing mayors to first-past-the-post, the same as parliamentary elections.
Labour MP Ian Byrne has criticised the party's "tone deaf response", and said if the party "does not reflect and change course", it will "face the consequences of a far-right government in four years' time".
Byrne is among a number of MPs and local representatives who have criticised their own party, with chairwoman for the party, Ellie Reeves, telling the BBC that "change takes time".
The MP for Liverpool West wrote on X: "We must listen to and heed the message voters have delivered and we must respond to it by changing the lives of working class people for the better with polices that transform the economic situation.
"If we do not improve the situation that millions of working class people find themselves in after 14 yrs of austerity, we will be rolling the red carpet out to Reform at the next general election."
A tone deaf response from Labour spokespeople. We must listen to and heed the message voters have delivered and we must respond to it by changing the lives of working class people for the better with polices that transform the economic situation.If we do not improve the…
— lan Byrne MP (@IanByrneMP) May 2, 2025
"I urge the Labour leadership to now truly reflect and change course. If they do not, I genuinely fear the country will face the consequences of a far-right government in four years' time," he added.
Reform UK has secured a dramatic by-election victory by six votes over Labour in Runcorn and Helsby as a former Tory minister became the party's first elected mayor.
Reform has 22 policy areas in its 'Our Contract with You' document on its website covering all areas of public life, but it narrows down to five key pledges to attract voters.
Their policies on immigration include processing all asylum seekers from a "safe country" rapidly and offshore "if necessary" without providing them with legal aid.
On cutting taxes for working people, they have pledged to increase the personal allowance from £12,570 to £20,000. They have also pledged to move the threshold for the higher rate from £50,271 to £70,000.
However, many have taken issue with their policies, such as their hardline stance on immigration and NHS, spending, which many have said will lead to privatisation.
Read the full story from Yahoo News.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has offered her "utmost thanks" to "every Conservative councillor and actvist who helped get our vote out yesterday".
Badenoch's party has suffered a series of bruising defeats so far, most recently losing control of Devon County Council, which has been led by the party since 2009.
My utmost thanks to every Conservative Councillor and activist who helped get out our vote yesterday.Congratulations to those who have won their seats and my sincerest commiserations to those who have lost today. These were always going to be a very difficult set of elections…
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) May 2, 2025
"These were always going to be a very difficult set of elections," Badenoch wrote on X.
Under-pressure Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has said the 'renewal of our party has only just begun' as she acknowledged a 'very difficult set of elections' for the Conservatives.
The Tories, in Badenoch's first electoral test as leader, are suffering at the hands of Reform and could also be squeezed by the Liberal Democrats.
In a post on X, she said: 'These were always going to be a very difficult set of elections coming off the high of 2021, and our historic defeat last year – and so it's proving.
'The renewal of our party has only just begun and I'm determined to win back the trust of the public and the seats we've lost, in the years to come.'
Reform has taken control of a second council after winning further seats in Lincolnshire.
The party followed up its triumph in the Greater Lincolnshire mayoral election by taking enough seats to control the county council, which has 70 councillors.
With around 20 seats still to declare, Reform had won 36, with the Liberal Democrats on five, Conservatives four and Labour three.
The Conservatives had previously controlled the council with 54 seats, with six Independents, four Labour, three Liberal Democrat and three Reform councillors.
The Conservatives have lost control of Devon County Council after winning just six of the first 51 seats to be declared.
The Liberal Democrats had won 24 seats, needing to take seven of the final nine to take control, while Reform had 14, Greens five and two were claimed by independents.
Wow, just wow! 'A new dawn has broken has it not? And it is wonderful. We always said if we had had the courage to change we could do it, and we did it. The British people have put their trust in us. It is a moving and humbling experience.'
Tony Blair's 1997 victory speech could have been delivered, word for word, by Nigel Farage early this morning. Helpfully, it was indeed dawn over Widnes as the closest – and arguably the greatest – by-election victory in British history emerged at the Halton Stadium, where the votes were counted a short hop across the Mersey from Runcorn itself.
Read more from The Telegraph.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, known for his electoral campaigning stunts, is doing a more conventional photo op today: serving up ice cream.
The BBC reported that Davey told one punter 'the ice cream is melting just like the Conservative's support'.
He's in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, to thank voters following the local elections. The full result is expected at about 4pm.
Reform UK has taken control of Staffordshire County Council after it reached 32 seats when counting resumed on Friday.
It gave Nigel Farage's party a majority on the council with the Conservatives taking six seats. A further 24 are still to be announced.
The Conservatives previously controlled the council with 53 seats, with Labour on five and four independents.
Sir Keir Starmer has said Labour 'gets it' and that it will go 'further and faster on the change that people want to see' in the wake of the overnight election results.
He told reporters: 'What I want to say is, my response is: we get it.
'We were elected in last year to bring about change.'
He said his party has 'started that work' with changes such as reductions in NHS waiting lists, and added: 'I am determined that we will go further and faster on the change that people want to see.'
For the last few months, Nigel Farage has been promising to professionalise his Reform UK party, saying its general election result of five seats had been hampered by the party's 'amateurism'.
Friday's narrow victory in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election suggests his strategy is starting to bear fruit. Not only did the party win a seat in which it came a distant third less than a year ago, but it did so with a much bigger swing than implied by the national polls – demonstrating the effectiveness of the party's ground campaign.
Read more from The Guardian.
Reform's Sarah Pochin has clinched victory in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election by just six votes.
She was the favourite to win since being unveiled by Nigel Farage in March, following Labour MP Mike Amesbury's conviction for punching a constituent.
Pochin will become Reform's fifth MP and its first female representative in parliament when the Commons returns on Tuesday.
But who is the 55-year-old new MP and what is she likely to do as a Reform MP?
Read the full story from The Independent.
Reform UK's first mayor has called for migrants to be housed in tents instead of hotels.
Dame Andrea Jenkyns, the first elected mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, made the comment as she called for 'an end to soft touch Britain' in her victory speech following local elections on Thursday.
The remarks prompted some rival candidates to walk off stage during her speech.
Read the full story from The Telegraph.
Gains Labour made last year when Sir Keir Starmer won a landslide Westminster election have 'largely been lost', a polling expert has said.
While Scotland is not holding local elections, mapping today's votes indicates the SNP as comfortably ahead of Scottish Labour in the run up to next May's Holyrood election.
Mark Diffley, founder of the research agency Diffley Partnership, told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme: 'The SNP has revived somewhat since its drubbing at the general election last year' – when it saw its seat tally at Westminster fall to just nine.
Labour won that election in Scotland and across the UK, but Diffley said the party is now 'making no progress whatsoever and is polling pretty much where it was in the Holyrood election in 2021″.
He added: 'The gains Labour made last year have now largely been lost.'
The Survation survey, carried out on behalf of Diffley Partnership, found 36% of people are planning to vote for John Swinney's party on the constituency section of the ballot, with 28% saying they will support the SNP on the regional list section of the vote.
Reform has won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election by just six votes, ousting Labour
Reform has taken its third council, securing a majority in Durham as well as Staffordshire County Council and Lincolnshire County Countil
Dame Andrea Jenkyns secures a first ever Reform mayoral win - in Greater Lincolnshire
Labour wins mayoral races in North Tyneside, the West of England and Doncaster
Reform continues to make gains from Labour and the Tories with final results expected at 7pm
Paul Bristow has won the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough mayoral contest with a majority of more than 10,500 over Reform's Ryan Coogan, with Anna Smith third for Labour, Liberal Democrat Lorna Dupre fourth and Green Bob Ensch fifth.
It means the Conservatives regain the post, which they took in 2017, with Labour winning four years ago.
A number of MPs and campaigners from within Labour's own ranks have spoken out, warning that the government's cuts to the winter fuel payment, disability benefits and national insurance hikes have gone down badly with voters.
Here's what some Labour members have said so far:
After narrowly securing a victory, the Mayor for Doncaster, Ros Jones, said the prime minister to "listen to the people" following the election results
Diane Abbott posted on X: "Labour leadership saying the party will go further and faster in the same direction. They don't seem to understand that it is our current direction that is the problem"
MP for Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵrc Steve Witherden said Labour needs to "offer real hope by reversing ever-widening inequality"
Former shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon warned that the winter fuel allowance and disability benefits cuts mean "the leadership is driving away our own voters"
Liverpool West MP Ian Byrne said Labour's official response to the losses had been "tone deaf", and the government risks "rolling the red carpet out to Reform at the next general election"
Former shadow environment and employment secretary Rachael Maskell called for a "return to a Labour-economic plan" amid anger over PIP cuts
The Liberal Democrats have narrowly failed to win control of Devon County Council but were certain to be the biggest party after winning 26 seats, with just four to declare, and 31 needed for a majority.
Reform secured 16 seats, the Conservatives and Greens six each and independents two.
The Lib Dems previously had just 10 seats on the council, which was controlled by the Conservatives with 40.
Labour losing one of its safest seats is what happens when the government cuts disability benefits and panders to an anti-migrant rhetoric, a former MP from the party has said.
Zarah Sultana, who was suspended from Labour after she voted to scrap the two-child benefit cap, wrote on Blue Sky that the by-election result "isn't the change people voted for and it shows".
The independent MP wrote: "Labour losing one of its safest seats shows what happens when a government cuts disability benefits and winter fuel payments, keeps the two-child benefit cap, and panders to anti-migrant rhetoric: Reform wins and always will.
"This isn't the change people voted for and it shows."
Reform has taken control of a third council.
The party's candidates took more than 50 seats at Durham County Council, where Labour was previously the biggest party.
Party leader Nigel Farage is expected to visit Durham on Friday afternoon.
Conservative candidate Paul Bristow is on track to win the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough mayoral contest, which Labour had held since 2021.
The former Peterborough MP was more than 8,000 votes ahead of Reform UK with results in from five of the six authorities in the region, with just Cambridge City to come.
Labour's Nik Johnson won in 2021, but was not standing this time, and party candidate Anna Smith was trailing in fourth place, behind the Liberal Democrats, with the final result to declare.
Mr Johnson was behind the Conservatives after the first round four years ago, but picked up Lib Dem second preference votes in the second round.
But the Conservatives have since changed the system for electing mayors to first-past-the-post, the same as parliamentary elections.
Labour MP Ian Byrne has criticised the party's "tone deaf response", and said if the party "does not reflect and change course", it will "face the consequences of a far-right government in four years' time".
Byrne is among a number of MPs and local representatives who have criticised their own party, with chairwoman for the party, Ellie Reeves, telling the BBC that "change takes time".
The MP for Liverpool West wrote on X: "We must listen to and heed the message voters have delivered and we must respond to it by changing the lives of working class people for the better with polices that transform the economic situation.
"If we do not improve the situation that millions of working class people find themselves in after 14 yrs of austerity, we will be rolling the red carpet out to Reform at the next general election."
A tone deaf response from Labour spokespeople. We must listen to and heed the message voters have delivered and we must respond to it by changing the lives of working class people for the better with polices that transform the economic situation.If we do not improve the…
— lan Byrne MP (@IanByrneMP) May 2, 2025
"I urge the Labour leadership to now truly reflect and change course. If they do not, I genuinely fear the country will face the consequences of a far-right government in four years' time," he added.
Reform UK has secured a dramatic by-election victory by six votes over Labour in Runcorn and Helsby as a former Tory minister became the party's first elected mayor.
Reform has 22 policy areas in its 'Our Contract with You' document on its website covering all areas of public life, but it narrows down to five key pledges to attract voters.
Their policies on immigration include processing all asylum seekers from a "safe country" rapidly and offshore "if necessary" without providing them with legal aid.
On cutting taxes for working people, they have pledged to increase the personal allowance from £12,570 to £20,000. They have also pledged to move the threshold for the higher rate from £50,271 to £70,000.
However, many have taken issue with their policies, such as their hardline stance on immigration and NHS, spending, which many have said will lead to privatisation.
Read the full story from Yahoo News.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has offered her "utmost thanks" to "every Conservative councillor and actvist who helped get our vote out yesterday".
Badenoch's party has suffered a series of bruising defeats so far, most recently losing control of Devon County Council, which has been led by the party since 2009.
My utmost thanks to every Conservative Councillor and activist who helped get out our vote yesterday.Congratulations to those who have won their seats and my sincerest commiserations to those who have lost today. These were always going to be a very difficult set of elections…
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) May 2, 2025
"These were always going to be a very difficult set of elections," Badenoch wrote on X.
Under-pressure Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has said the 'renewal of our party has only just begun' as she acknowledged a 'very difficult set of elections' for the Conservatives.
The Tories, in Badenoch's first electoral test as leader, are suffering at the hands of Reform and could also be squeezed by the Liberal Democrats.
In a post on X, she said: 'These were always going to be a very difficult set of elections coming off the high of 2021, and our historic defeat last year – and so it's proving.
'The renewal of our party has only just begun and I'm determined to win back the trust of the public and the seats we've lost, in the years to come.'
Reform has taken control of a second council after winning further seats in Lincolnshire.
The party followed up its triumph in the Greater Lincolnshire mayoral election by taking enough seats to control the county council, which has 70 councillors.
With around 20 seats still to declare, Reform had won 36, with the Liberal Democrats on five, Conservatives four and Labour three.
The Conservatives had previously controlled the council with 54 seats, with six Independents, four Labour, three Liberal Democrat and three Reform councillors.
The Conservatives have lost control of Devon County Council after winning just six of the first 51 seats to be declared.
The Liberal Democrats had won 24 seats, needing to take seven of the final nine to take control, while Reform had 14, Greens five and two were claimed by independents.
Wow, just wow! 'A new dawn has broken has it not? And it is wonderful. We always said if we had had the courage to change we could do it, and we did it. The British people have put their trust in us. It is a moving and humbling experience.'
Tony Blair's 1997 victory speech could have been delivered, word for word, by Nigel Farage early this morning. Helpfully, it was indeed dawn over Widnes as the closest – and arguably the greatest – by-election victory in British history emerged at the Halton Stadium, where the votes were counted a short hop across the Mersey from Runcorn itself.
Read more from The Telegraph.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, known for his electoral campaigning stunts, is doing a more conventional photo op today: serving up ice cream.
The BBC reported that Davey told one punter 'the ice cream is melting just like the Conservative's support'.
He's in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, to thank voters following the local elections. The full result is expected at about 4pm.
Reform UK has taken control of Staffordshire County Council after it reached 32 seats when counting resumed on Friday.
It gave Nigel Farage's party a majority on the council with the Conservatives taking six seats. A further 24 are still to be announced.
The Conservatives previously controlled the council with 53 seats, with Labour on five and four independents.
Sir Keir Starmer has said Labour 'gets it' and that it will go 'further and faster on the change that people want to see' in the wake of the overnight election results.
He told reporters: 'What I want to say is, my response is: we get it.
'We were elected in last year to bring about change.'
He said his party has 'started that work' with changes such as reductions in NHS waiting lists, and added: 'I am determined that we will go further and faster on the change that people want to see.'
For the last few months, Nigel Farage has been promising to professionalise his Reform UK party, saying its general election result of five seats had been hampered by the party's 'amateurism'.
Friday's narrow victory in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election suggests his strategy is starting to bear fruit. Not only did the party win a seat in which it came a distant third less than a year ago, but it did so with a much bigger swing than implied by the national polls – demonstrating the effectiveness of the party's ground campaign.
Read more from The Guardian.
Reform's Sarah Pochin has clinched victory in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election by just six votes.
She was the favourite to win since being unveiled by Nigel Farage in March, following Labour MP Mike Amesbury's conviction for punching a constituent.
Pochin will become Reform's fifth MP and its first female representative in parliament when the Commons returns on Tuesday.
But who is the 55-year-old new MP and what is she likely to do as a Reform MP?
Read the full story from The Independent.
Reform UK's first mayor has called for migrants to be housed in tents instead of hotels.
Dame Andrea Jenkyns, the first elected mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, made the comment as she called for 'an end to soft touch Britain' in her victory speech following local elections on Thursday.
The remarks prompted some rival candidates to walk off stage during her speech.
Read the full story from The Telegraph.
Gains Labour made last year when Sir Keir Starmer won a landslide Westminster election have 'largely been lost', a polling expert has said.
While Scotland is not holding local elections, mapping today's votes indicates the SNP as comfortably ahead of Scottish Labour in the run up to next May's Holyrood election.
Mark Diffley, founder of the research agency Diffley Partnership, told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme: 'The SNP has revived somewhat since its drubbing at the general election last year' – when it saw its seat tally at Westminster fall to just nine.
Labour won that election in Scotland and across the UK, but Diffley said the party is now 'making no progress whatsoever and is polling pretty much where it was in the Holyrood election in 2021″.
He added: 'The gains Labour made last year have now largely been lost.'
The Survation survey, carried out on behalf of Diffley Partnership, found 36% of people are planning to vote for John Swinney's party on the constituency section of the ballot, with 28% saying they will support the SNP on the regional list section of the vote.