Reform Party Election Surge Signals Sea Change in British Politics
The Reform UK party under Nigel Farage has just seized its first by-election victory in a former Labour stronghold and has made huge gains in local elections, foreshadowing seismic shifts in English politics.
Runcorn is a typical Northern England constituency, a once-thriving bastion of working-class loyalty now in decline, where long-standing support for the incumbent Labour Party has drained.
Voters are tilting toward Farage’s upstart movement that is steaming ahead of the two establishment parties, Labour and the Conservatives.
They have dominated two-party British politics for more than a century.
Voters across England also headed to the booths to vote for four regional mayors and 1,750 councilors on May 1.
As of Friday afternoon, Reform has also won an avalanche of council seats, including control of Staffordshire County Council and Durham County Council.
Reform was founded in 2021 as the successor to the Brexit Party, itself formed as a spin-off of the UKIP party after Farage resigned from that organization in 2018.
After a break from front-line politics, Farage—a longtime supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump and a GB News presenter—joined Reform as its leader only last year, ahead of the general election in July.
He said that the Conservatives, historically one of the most successful parties of any modern democracy, were now “toast.”
“You’re witnessing the end of a party that’s been around since 1832,” he said.
Reform still holds five seats in the 650-member House of Commons, having won more than 4 million votes at the last general election.
Popular former Reform MP Rupert Lowe lost the party whip in March amid bullying allegations, which he denies.
However, the total remains at five after the Pochin win.
Academic, writer, and pollster Matthew Goodwin told The Epoch Times, “This is a huge, huge result for Reform, which signals the beginning of a much bigger political earthquake.”
He added that winning Runcorn and Helsby, which he characterised as the “155th most Reform-friendly seat in the country,” meant that they can win much more.
“They can win dozens and dozens of mainly Labour-held seats” across England and into Wales, he said.
“We’ve essentially gone 17 years without meaningful growth, meaningful average wage rises. It’s not surprising that people are getting fed up at the same time we’ve got crumbling public services,” he said.
Menon also said that if the economy were working properly, people would be less concerned about immigration.
