Nearly one in four of the 17 million votes went in favour of Reform UK.
Reform UK made huge gains in the elections (Image: Getty)
The Labour Party has suffered significant election losses, with pressure piling on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. Meanwhile, Reform UK won hundreds of seats and took control of councils from Labour, including Barnsley, Wakefield, Sunderland and Gateshead.
Nigel Farage believes the support for his party would not be a “one-off” and said it indicates a “truly historic shift in British politics”. While Reform UK was the big winner in England, picking up more than 1,400 seats, Labour has lost power in Wales after 27 years and the SNP remains the largest party in Scotland. Of the 17 million votes counted and declared in the recent English council elections, nearly one in four went to Reform UK. Check your area below.
The data shows Labour received around 20% of the votes compared to Reform’s 24.6%. Meanwhile, the Conservatives won 19.2%, the Greens 17.1% and the Liberal Democrats 13.9%.
The voting led to Reform UK picking up an unprecedented 1,453 councillors and taking control of 14 new councils.
Increased support for the party also saw Hartlepool, Tameside, Redditch and Tamworth shift to no overall control.
Pressure is mounting on the Prime Minister (Image: Getty)
In Wigan, where a third of seats were up for election, Reform won an impressive 24 out of 24 as Labour saw its majority on the council reduced. Meanwhile, control of Newcastle-under-Lyme passed to Reform from the Tories.
Reform also had victories in areas that Theresa May would have called “left behind towns”. Corringham and Fobbing, in Thurrock, was the ward with the highest Reform vote share of any ward, picking up 66.7% of the vote.
Manor House, in Blackpool, went 66.3% in favour of Reform while the party also won 66.2% of the vote in Knutton in Newcastle-under-Lyme. They also won 64.9% of the vote in Upper Gornal and Woodsetton, in Dudley, and 64.4% in Rossmere in Hartlepool.
Reform UK managed to get more than half of votes in three council areas. Cannock Chase in Staffordshire had the strongest Reform vote, with 54% of voters picking one of the party’s candidates.
After Reform secured control of Havering, Mr Farage said: “What’s happened is a truly historic shift in British politics. We’ve been so used to thinking about politics in terms of left and right, yet what Reform are able to do is to win in areas that have always been Conservative, but equally, we’re proving in a big way that we could win in areas that Labour has dominated since the end of World War I.”
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister is battling to save his job, with a Labour MP plotting to launch a leadership challenge on Monday in the hope of spurring his Cabinet to move to oust him.
But despite mounting pressure to quit, Sir Keir insisted he would lead Labour into the next general election to continue with his 10-year project of “national renewal”.