Reform’s Andrea Jenkyns cut short a toe-curling Sky News interview today after using her Lincolnshire mayor victory speech to swipe at a rival’s South African accent.
Three losing candidates – including Labour and the Conservatives – walked off stage without shaking her hand after she triumphed by 40,000 votes this morning.
Lincolnshire was at the centre of Reform’s political earthquake today after Dame Andrea’s win and big gains on the county council amid a Tory collapse.
The advances have been reflected across the local elections battleground in England overnight, with Nigel Farage hailing a ‘big moment’ as the party seized Runcorn & Helsby from Labour in a dramatic by-election.
Dame Andrea had declared that Channel migrants should live in tents, suggesting that if the policy is ‘good enough’ for France it should be good enough for the UK.
She also jibed at the ‘irony’ of one rival claiming she had been ‘parachuted’ in by Reform, when they had a South African accent.
Dame Andrea faced questions during the campaign about whether she met the residence criteria to stand, but was given the green light by officials.
Minutes later the new Greater Lincolnshire Mayor had a bruising clash during a Sky News interview, batting away the microphone as she insisted her views on immigration are backed by Britain’s ‘silent majority’.
Reform only narrowly missed out on having a mayor in North Tyneside, cutting a Labour majority of almost 14,000 down to just 444.
It was a similar story in Doncaster, where Labour’s Ros Jones closed out Mr Farage’s party by just 698 votes. The Tories were in third, with the right-wing parties together taking 57 per cent of the vote.
Ms Jones launched an extraordinary tirade at Sir Keir after the announcement, berating him for not ‘listening’ to unrest over cuts to winter fuel allowance and the national insurance hike.
More Reform successes look set to rack up as results are declared over the course of the day. The areas up for grabs are traditionally true-blue and were last decided at Boris Johnson’s peak in 2021.
On a momentous day in British politics:
Dame Andrea, wearing an Abba-inspired glam sequined jumpsuit in Reform blue, won a thumping majority over her former party, the Conservatives.
In her victory speech at Grimsby, Dame Andrea said that illegal immigrants arriving in Britain should live in tents, not hotels.
She said: ‘Reform will reset Britain to its glorious past. We will tackle illegal migration. I say no to putting people in hotels. Tents are good enough for France, they should be good enough for here in Britain.’
After her speech she had a row with Sky News over the comments, eventually pushing away the microphone and refusing to answer the reporter’s questions.
She had said that she stood by her comments about tents for migrants and that her view would also be backed by the ‘silent majority’ in the UK.
Asked about calling out a rival’s South African accent, she said there was an ‘irony of saying someone’s being parachuted in who’s not even from the country’.
‘Do you not understand irony?’ she said before moving away.
Immigration and efficiencies in local government, including a British DOGE for each council they control to slash town hall waste, were at the heart of Reform’s campaign.
Ms Jenkyns said there would be ‘an end to soft touch Britain’ after Reform UK’s gains in the polls.
She said: ‘The fightback to save the heart and soul of our great country has now begun.
‘Now that Reform is in a place of power, we can help start rebuilding Britain. Inch by inch, Reform will reset Britain to its glorious past.
‘We will tackle illegal migration. I say no to putting people in hotels. Tents are good enough for France, they should be good enough for here in Britain.’
Party leader Mr Farage said today: ‘We now are the opposition party in the UK to Labour, and the Tories are a waste of space’.
On a night when Reform also won the Westminster by-election in Runcorn & Helsby by just six votes, Dame Andrea’s victory was absolute.
She received 104,133 votes, with the Tories miles behind on 64,585. Turnout was just under 30 per cent.
She said that ‘inch-by-inch Reform will reset Britain to its glorious past’, paying tribute to Mr Farage.
‘I know one day he will make a great prime minister,’ she added.
The voters of Lincolnshire, a county with a close affinity with Brexit, have given a bloody nose to the Tories and the Labour party.
The Reform UK leader said in Runcorn this morning: ‘It’s been a big night for us.
‘We’ve dug very deep into the Labour vote and, in other parts of England, we’ve dug deep into the Conservative vote and we are now, after tonight there’s no question, in most of the country, we are now the main opposition party to this Government.’
The results suggests that national polling putting Reform neck-and-neck with the Tories and Labour parties is correct.
Polling expert Sir John Curtice said Reform UK ‘are in business’ following their good night at the polls.
The Strathclyde University professor told BBC Breakfast: ‘The big question we were looking to these elections to answer was, the message of the opinion polls is that Reform are now posing a big threat to both Conservative and Labour, neck and neck with them according to the polls.
‘Is that really true? And I think we now already know that the answer to that question is yes.
‘Ukip never managed to win a parliamentary by-election afresh in the way that Reform have managed to do in Runcorn.’
Sir John said Reform had put in ‘some quite remarkable performances’ as the more evenly spread vote was not a disadvantage to them at local level.
He added: ‘Reform are in business. They are a major challenge.’
Nigel Farage sent a shockwave through UK politics today as Reform seized Runcorn & Helsby from Labour by just six votes in a dramatic by-election.
A jubilant Mr Farage hailed a ‘big moment’ after recounts in the Cheshire seat, with local elections seeing the insurgents rack up gains across England and spark panic in the two main parties.
It was the narrowest by-election win in modern British history, in what was a Labour stronghold just nine months ago at the general election.
Watched by Mr Farage, victorious candidate Sarah Pochin said the public was sending a message that ‘enough is enough’. ‘Enough Tory failure, enough Labour lies,’ she said.
Mike Amesbury won Runcorn with a huge majority of 14,696 in July, but he resigned earlier this year after being convicted of assaulting a constituent on a night out, triggering this vote.
Ms Pochin received 12,645 votes with her Labour rival just behind on 12,639. The Conservatives received 2,341.
The previous post-war record for the smallest majority at a by-election was 57 in Berwick-Upon-Tweed in 1973.
In one of the first major shocks of the night, Labour’s Karen Clark won the race to be mayor of North Tyneside – held by the party since the post’s inception in 2002.
But the margin of victory was just 444 votes, ahead of Reform’s John Falkenstein in second place and the Tories pushed down to third.
The last time the mayoralty was up for grabs in 2021 the Labour majority was almost 14,000 – although a different voting system was used then.
Mr Farage’s long-term ally Arron Banks put in a strong showing in the West of England mayoralty, overhauling the Greens to come second.
In Greater Lincolnshire, Dame Andrea received 104,133 votes, with the Tories far behind on 64,585. Turnout was just under 30 per cent.
She said that ‘inch-by-inch Reform will reset Britain to its glorious past’, paying tribute to Mr Farage.
‘I know one day he will make a great prime minister,’ she added.
Mr Farage said he was ‘delighted’ with the outcome so far. ‘It’s been a huge night for Reform. One or two near misses in the mayoral contests but a huge night for Reform,’ he told reporters at the count in Runcorn.
He said it had been an ’emotional rollercoaster’ for Ms Pochin.
‘It’s the closest by-election since the war and I think one of the most dramatic, but I sense, also, one of the most significant,’ he said.
Mr Farage said they were ‘on the verge’ of taking control of the council in Staffordshire, and he would be looking towards County Durham where he ‘fancied our chances’.
He also branded Sir Keir a ‘coward’ for failing to visit Runcorn during the campaign.
‘He obviously feared they might lose, therefore he didn’t come,’ he said.