Nigel Farage has hailed seven council by-election wins for Reform UK. The Reform leader took to X to celebrate the victories in town halls across the country following ballots yesterday.

He said: “Good news! Reform won seven council by-elections last night. Take the St Helens Town Centre Ward, last up in 2022. We went from 0% to 39%, smashing Labour. The Conservatives got 3.6%. They are no longer a national party.

“In Wilnecote Ward in Tamworth, we thrashed the Conservatives. Our vote was up +33%, theirs down -20%. We also won big in Cambridgeshire, Rhyl South, Nuneaton and Staffordshire. Across the country, people get it. Britain is broken. Only Reform will fix it!”

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage (Image: Getty)

It comes as Reform has been consistently leading national opinion polls.

The party also swept to victory at May’s local elections, where Labour faced a drubbing, but has not been successful in recent Westminster by-elections, including Makerfield and Gorton and Denton.

But Labour could receive a bounce following Sir Keir Starmer‘s resignation, with Andy Burnham looking set to enter 10 Downing Street within weeks.

Polling by More in Common found that in a hypothetical general election with Mr Burnham as Labour leader, the party would beat Reform UK – but only by a single point.

The survey suggested Labour would win 27% of the vote ahead of Reform on 26% and the Conservatives on 23%.

If Mr Burnham was not leader, Reform takes 28%, Labour 22% and the Tories 21%, according to the poll.

The new Makerfield MP is likely to be installed as leader on July 17 if a challenger does not emerge.

Nightmare for Andy Burnham as Reform Win 7 By-Elections with Labour Smashed in 1 Key Vote

Reform UK recorded seven council by-election victories on a single night in June, including a closely watched result in St Helens where the party took a seat from Labour in a ward that had previously been firmly in Labour hands.

The results, all declared on 25 June 2026, came only days after Andy Burnham secured the Labour nomination and entered Downing Street as prime minister. They therefore provided an early snapshot of the political terrain facing his new government — although council by-elections should not be treated as a direct prediction of a future general election.

Reform UK itself described the seven victories as evidence that voters were moving away from both Labour and the Conservatives. Independent election data confirms that Reform won seven of the 23 contests held that day, although several of the victories were holds rather than gains.

The most politically striking result came in St Helens Town Centre.

Reform breaks through in Labour’s St Helens heartland

St Helens Town Centre was a two-seat ward and had previously elected two Labour councillors.

The 2022 result had been dominated by Labour, with its two candidates receiving 747 and 700 votes respectively. The Conservatives were a distant second, while the For Britain Movement was the only other party on the ballot.

The picture changed dramatically in June.

Reform UK candidates Jeremy Axworthy and Chris Page topped the poll with 460 and 419 votes respectively. Labour’s Michael Fisher received 436 votes and Michelle Sweeney 391.

The final result meant one Reform candidate gained a seat from Labour while Labour retained the second seat. In other words, Reform did not completely sweep the ward, but it did take one of Labour’s two seats.

The closeness of the contest is also significant. Reform’s second candidate finished only 17 votes behind Labour’s second candidate.

That made the result more than a routine council by-election. It demonstrated that Reform was capable of competing directly with Labour in an area where Labour had previously been dominant.

However, the figures also show why describing the result as a total Labour collapse would be misleading. Labour retained one seat, and the two Reform candidates did not receive an outright majority of the vote.

Seven Reform victories in one night

The seven Reform wins came across England and Wales.

They were:

• Camp Hill, Nuneaton and Bedworth — Reform gained from Labour.
• Rhyl South, Denbighshire — Reform gained a seat previously held by an independent elected for Labour.
• Wilnecote, Tamworth — Reform gained from the Conservatives.
• St Helens Town Centre — Reform gained one of two seats from Labour.
• Haydock, St Helens — Reform held its seat.
• Stretton, Staffordshire — Reform held its seat.
• Roman Bank and Peckover, Cambridgeshire — Reform held its seat.

The geographical spread was notable.

The results stretched from the North West and Midlands to Wales and eastern England. Reform therefore demonstrated that its local support was not confined to one particular council or region.

But the individual results varied considerably.

Some represented gains from Labour, others gains from the Conservatives, while several were straightforward holds.

That distinction matters when assessing what the results actually tell us.

Wilnecote delivers another warning for Labour

One of the sharpest movements came in Wilnecote, in Tamworth.

Reform won with 618 votes, equivalent to 46.4 per cent. An independent candidate finished second with 290 votes, while the Conservatives received 162 and Labour 152.

The Labour vote share fell substantially compared with the previous contest, while Reform increased its share by more than 33 percentage points.

The result was a Reform gain from the Conservatives rather than Labour.

Nevertheless, Labour’s 11.4 per cent share demonstrated how difficult the political environment had become for the party in some traditional working-class areas.

The result also showed that Reform’s challenge was not simply about taking Labour voters. The Conservatives were vulnerable too.

Camp Hill: Reform takes Labour seat

At Camp Hill in Nuneaton and Bedworth, Reform defeated Labour in another direct contest.

Reform received 460 votes, or 48.7 per cent, compared with Labour’s 400 votes, or 42.4 per cent. The Conservatives were well behind on 84 votes.

The result was therefore a relatively straightforward two-party contest between Reform and Labour.

It also illustrated an important feature of the emerging political landscape: in some local contests, the Conservatives were no longer the main challenger to Labour.

Instead, Reform was competing directly with Labour for voters.

That development could have consequences for both parties, because a fragmented opposition can alter the arithmetic of local elections even when the overall number of votes does not dramatically change.

Rhyl South adds a Welsh dimension

Reform’s victory in Rhyl South brought Wales into the picture.

Tony Thomas of Reform UK won with 297 votes, or 38.6 per cent. The Conservatives received 167 votes, Plaid Cymru 160 and Labour 131. Turnout was only 25.89 per cent.

The relatively low turnout is an important qualification.

Council by-elections frequently attract far fewer voters than national elections, and the electorate that turns out can differ significantly from the wider population.

That means individual results are useful evidence of local political sentiment, but they cannot automatically be extrapolated into a nationwide forecast.

Haydock and Stretton show Reform defending ground

Two of Reform’s seven victories were holds.

In Haydock, Reform retained the seat with 717 votes, or 33 per cent. An independent candidate came second with 29 per cent, while Labour received 27.5 per cent.

In Stretton, Reform won with 902 votes, or 37.1 per cent, narrowly ahead of the Conservatives on 871 votes, or 35.8 per cent. Labour finished third with 18.4 per cent.

The Stretton result was particularly close, with only 31 votes separating Reform and the Conservatives.

That illustrates another feature of the June results: Reform’s progress did not automatically translate into comfortable victories everywhere.

Roman Bank and Peckover: another narrow contest

Reform also retained Roman Bank and Peckover in Cambridgeshire.

The party received 39 per cent, narrowly ahead of the Conservatives on 38 per cent.

Again, the numbers show a competitive race rather than an overwhelming victory.

Across the seven contests, therefore, there were several different stories: gains from Labour, gains from the Conservatives, narrow holds and contests decided by relatively small margins.

What does this mean for Andy Burnham?

The timing inevitably places the results under a political spotlight for Burnham.

Burnham had won the Makerfield parliamentary by-election on 18 June, defeating Reform’s Robert Kenyon. Parliament records the result as a Labour hold and list Burnham as the new MP for the constituency.

That victory came just one week before Reform’s seven council wins.

The contrast between the two sets of results has already become part of the political argument.

Reform can point to its seven local victories, while Labour can point to Burnham’s parliamentary victory in Makerfield.

Neither result by itself settles the broader question of national electoral support.

Indeed, Reform’s own response to Makerfield acknowledged that its candidate had been defeated, despite the party’s strong performance in the local elections beforehand.

That combination makes the political picture more complicated than either side’s preferred headline might suggest.

Burnham faces a fragmented electoral landscape

The bigger challenge for Burnham is that Labour is operating in an increasingly fragmented electoral environment.

Reform is competing for voters on the right and among some traditional Labour constituencies. The Greens have also demonstrated strength in a number of urban areas, while the Liberal Democrats remain competitive in many parts of southern England and elsewhere.

The May 2026 local elections had already produced major changes in council representation, including a large number of Reform gains.

The June by-elections showed that those changes were continuing to play out at ward level.

For Labour, the St Helens result was particularly noteworthy because it occurred in an area where the party had previously dominated the ward.

Yet the same evening also produced evidence that Labour could still win.

In Farnworth, Halton, Labour retained the seat with 835 votes, or 51 per cent, while Reform finished second on 36.4 per cent.

In other words, Reform’s seven victories occurred alongside Labour holds and gains by other parties.

The national picture remains unsettled

Polling provides another reason for caution when interpreting council by-elections.

YouGov’s September voting-intention polling put Labour and Reform both on 23 per cent, with the Conservatives on 20 per cent, although voting-intention polls measure national opinion at a particular point in time and do not predict individual council results.

Earlier Ipsos research in June also showed that public attitudes towards Burnham were mixed, while he remained one of the more positively viewed Labour politicians in that survey. The poll was conducted before the later changes in government leadership and therefore cannot be treated as a current measure of opinion.

That distinction is important.

The phrase “nightmare for Andy Burnham” is a political characterization rather than an established fact. The measurable facts are that Reform won seven council contests on 25 June, took one seat from Labour in St Helens Town Centre, gained Camp Hill from Labour and recorded a sharp result in Wilnecote.

At the same time, Labour retained seats elsewhere, including one of the two St Helens Town Centre positions and Farnworth.

A warning sign, but not a national verdict

The June results provide clear evidence of Reform’s ability to win and defend council seats across different parts of England and Wales.

They also show Labour facing direct competition in some areas where it previously enjoyed stronger support.

But council by-elections are local contests. Turnout is often low, candidate selection varies, and individual local issues can have a major influence on the result.

For Burnham’s government, the significance of the seven Reform victories will therefore depend on whether similar voting patterns persist across future local and parliamentary contests.

For now, the clearest conclusion from the figures is narrower: Reform demonstrated substantial local electoral strength on one June polling day, while Labour’s performance varied sharply from ward to ward.

St Helens Town Centre perhaps captured the uncertainty best.

Reform won the most votes and gained one Labour seat, but Labour retained the other.

The result was therefore neither a complete Labour collapse nor an insignificant Reform advance.

It was another indication that Britain’s political competition is becoming more fragmented — and that Burnham’s Labour government will face a much more competitive electoral environment than the party experienced in many of its traditional strongholds in previous years.