Farage declares Tories “finished” as Reform UK makes major gains in local elections

I n a stunning turn of political fortune, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has scored a string of significant victories in the 1 May local elections, culminating in what the former UKIP leader calls a “Reformquake” shaking the foundations of British politics.

Securing the Runcorn and Helsby by-election and performing strongly across council and mayoral contests, Farage emerged on Sky News on Friday, claiming this moment marked “the most astonishing set of local election results in the history of our country.”

While national headlines fixated on Labour’s mayoral wins and Conservative collapses, Reform UK’s quiet consolidation of support in post-industrial and rural England may prove a more consequential shift ahead of the general election. For Farage, it is the culmination of a decades-long insurgency against the British political establishment.

Runcorn as the Tipping Point

Reform UK’s win in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election, where its candidate Sarah Pochin narrowly overturned a comfortable Labour majority (by 6 votes!), offered more than symbolic value. It marked the party’s first Westminster seat won in a competitive by-election — not through defection or resignation.

Farage seized the moment with a typical bombast. Interviewed on Sky News, he turned to the camera with a sardonic grin:

“The message to Keir Starmer, sarcastically, is: please keep doing what you’re doing. And the message to Kemi Badenoch is, frankly, the Conservative Party is finished today. It’s gone, it’s dying in the shires, it has no future, it stands for nothing, it serves no purpose.”

These were not the words of a fringe firebrand. They were a declaration of political war — not just against Labour and the Tories, but against the entire post-2010 consensus.