
‘They really are all horrible': displeasure in Runcorn despite Reform's jubilation
But as camera crews gathered, Reform UK officials who were ready to welcome their leader frantically scrambled back to the ballot boxes. The result, it seemed, was too close to call.
It would be another three hours before Farage sauntered into the DCBL stadium, looking relaxed despite the knife-edge contest that had left his sleep-deprived aides looking increasingly frazzled. The 61-year-old laughed off claims he had spent daybreak touring Widnes after aborting his earlier grand entrance. He had, he said, been 'having a quiet drink'. By 6am, it was time to toast victory.
'It's a very, very big moment, absolutely no question,' declared the perma-tanned populist, as his party grasped hold of one of Labour's safest seats by just six votes after a dramatic recount. It was the narrowest parliamentary byelection win this century.
As Farage's aides celebrated in the stadium car park – one puffing on a large cigar – the leader planned a victory lap of England. His once-fringe party was now centre stage, gaining a fifth MP, hundreds of council seats, a regional mayor and at least seven county councils from Durham to Staffordshire and Lincolnshire. He had decimated Kemi Badenoch's Conservatives and dealt a damaging blow to Labour.
On the southern banks of the River Mersey in Cheshire, from the post-industrial town of Runcorn to the Conservative villages around Frodsham, Reform UK had united an uneasy coalition of voters against Labour. One party activist described its supporters as 'those who set their alarm for work in the morning and are angry at those who don't – and those who don't'.
Labour, meanwhile, had relied on those who despise Farage – and they span all political shades – but it was not enough to save their 14,700-vote majority. Many had voted for Reform UK as a protest against the government. Others expressed their displeasure more creatively. 'I've never seen so many drawings of penises,' said one seasoned Labour campaigner after examining spoiled ballot papers.
The discontent was palpable on Friday in Murdishaw, a 1970s housing estate in Runcorn where barely one in four voted in Thursday's contest – the lowest turnout in the constituency. A 65-year-old retiree, who forgot to vote, was horrified when told by the Guardian that Reform UK had won by just six votes. 'Oh you're kidding me. I'm not happy about that,' she said, adding: 'I forgot all about [the election]. If only I'd remembered.'
Underlying Reform UK's dismantling of the historic two-party system in Westminster is a much more troubling trend: the growing numbers of voters detaching completely from politics. 'I don't see any point in any of them. They really are all horrible. Once they've been voted in, they forget about us,' said Tommy Young, 59, outside Murdishaw's Co-op.
Reform UK's candidate Sarah Pochin, a former Conservative councillor and local magistrate, becomes the first non-Labour MP elected by Runcorn in more than half a century.
But 200 miles across northern England, Reform UK gained its most powerful role yet as Andrea Jenkyns, a former Tory minister, was crowned mayor of the newly created authority of Greater Lincolnshire with a thumping 40,000-vote lead over the Conservatives.
Voters will now look to Greater Lincolnshire, Durham and Staffordshire to see what Reform UK can do in power. On the east coast, Jenkyns has pledged to ape Elon Musk's cost-cutting department of government efficiency (Doge) by launching a 'Doge Lincolnshire'.
A close ally of Boris Johnson, Jenkyns wasted no time in burnishing her hard-right credentials in her victory speech, telling the count centre in Grimsby that vulnerable asylum seekers should be forced to sleep in tents rather than housed in hotels. 'Tents are good enough for France, they should be good enough for here in Britain,' she said.
Speaking at a celebratory rally later on Friday at a working men's club in Co Durham, Farage made a similar point, saying Reform-run areas would 'resist' efforts by central government to house asylum seekers locally. The elections were 'a truly historic landmark', he declared.
Back in Cheshire, Conservative voters in the leafy village of Kingsley, which recorded the constituency's highest turnout, were cheering Labour's defeat. 'It's gone from Labour and that's a good thing,' said one cheerful retiree.
At Kingsley community centre, Labour voter Steve Easton, 56, said he believed the byelection was won as a result of divisive national concerns such as immigration rather than local issues.
'I think there's been a lot of noise created around this and a lot of noise by Reform,' he said. 'It's this big-picture politics, making statements about illegal immigrants – who are not the same as asylum seekers – and trying to bias the views of the public.'

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So where does this under-registration happen? 'It's mostly cities; places like Liverpool, Leeds, Bristol, London. MPs in these inner-city areas are representing larger populations, but that's not reflected in boundary calculations. If legislation goes through and we assume more eligible voters are registered, those people will finally be counted,' he added. Simply put, Tryl explained, this would mean more representation, and more parliamentary seats in urban and student-heavy areas. But with the total number of seats in parliament fixed at 650, that shift would inevitably come at the expense of rural, more affluent constituencies. 'It's hard to argue against the principle of automatic registration, but the boundary changes could make rural constituencies, some of which are already geographically large, even bigger,' Tryl said. Who is set to benefit? The most obvious party set to benefit is Labour, which tends to perform better in urban and student-heavy areas. But Tryl tells me that others are also likely to gain from this change. 'The Greens tend to perform better in inner cities and student areas. Some of the inner-city areas that we're talking about are where the independents have done very well, in parts of Birmingham and potentially in parts of London,' Tryl said. 'The big losers are likely to be the Conservatives, who tend to represent more affluent, high-registration areas, and the Liberal Democrats, who've made gains in the so-called Blue walls – former Tory, leafy, affluent strongholds.' Last week, Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana formally launched a new political party, targeting the very inner-city seats likely to gain from automatic voter registration. Polling suggests the party could capture about 10% of the vote, potentially eating into Labour and Green support. Zack Polanski, who is running to be the next Green party leader, has already said he is open to working with any party willing to challenge Reform. This emerging 'Green-left' alliance could be pivotal in shaping the electoral map. On Friday, the group We Deserve Better, backed by the Guardian columnist Owen Jones, launched a campaign calling for a formal electoral pact between Corbyn and Sultana's party and the Greens. As for Reform UK, it's difficult to draw firm conclusions for now, Tryl said. But previous research (pdf) suggests the party's base is made up largely of older, non‑graduate, culturally conservative voters, many disillusioned with the Conservatives or drawn from the Brexit camp. Will this increase voter turnout? While this reform could have a far bigger effect on the electorate than extending the vote to 16- and 17-year-olds – there are about 1.5 million of them in the UK compared with an estimated eight million eligible voters who aren't registered – it is unlikely to lead to a dramatic surge in turnout, Tryl said. Voter turnout in UK general elections used to be consistently high, staying above 70% from 1945 right up until 1997, and even topping 80% in 1950 and 1951. But it had plunged to just 59.4% by the time Tony Blair secured his second term in 2001. Turnout did climb again between 2010 and 2019, yet it has never returned to 70%. In the most recent election in 2024, it slipped again, landing at 59.7%. 'I think that represents a wider democratic disillusionment and disengagement,' Tryl said, but added that there was public support for AVR. 'Forty-five per cent said they supported it, just 21% opposed. So it is more popular than allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to vote. But clearly that needs to go and sit alongside wider democratic engagement in a nonpartisan way.' People need to feel that voting matters. 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