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 his party racking up gains across England at the expense of the two main parties.

It was the narrowest by-election win in modern British history, in what was a safe Labour seat 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.  

As results from yesterday’s contests start to flow in, Reform’s Dame Andrea Jenkyns romped home as the first Greater Lincolnshire mayor with an enormous 40,000 majority over the Tories. 

The party is also on track to control the county council, as its national poll surge is translated into real votes and real power. 

Earlier, 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.   

Reform were also a shock second in the West of England, where Labour held the mayoralty in what was meant to be a two-horse race between them and the Greens.

In the coming hours Mr Farage’s outfit is expected to take hundreds of council seats surrendered by the Tories. The areas up for grabs are traditionally true-blue and were last decided at Boris Johnson’s peak in 2021.

Polling guru Professor John Curtice said that from the first 124 wards declared Reform’s vote share was 38 per cent, the Conservatives 28 per cent and Labour 18 per cent. 

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. 

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.

‘I knocked on doors for eight hours today and I would have been here in this hall with our candidate regardless, whether we had won or lost by six votes.’

Senior Labour sources have suggested Reform could win Durham Council, which would cause panic in the ranks. 

Returning Doncaster mayor Ms Jones condemned Sir Keir for failing to ‘listen’ to the public.

She told the BBC: ‘I wrote as soon as the winter fuel allowance was actually mooted, and I said it was wrong, and therefore I stepped in immediately and used our household support fund to ensure no-one in Doncaster went cold during the winter.’

The increase in national insurance was ‘hitting some of our smaller businesses’ and the squeeze on the personal independence payment was leaving many people ‘worried’, Ms Jones said.

She added: ‘I think the results here tonight will demonstrate that they need to be listening to the man, woman and businesses on the street, and actually deliver for the people, with the people.’

Reform UK won three of the first five wards declared at Northumberland County Council, with Labour and the Conservatives picking up one each.

It also picked up seats in Norwich and Hartlepool.

Tory frontbencher Helen Whately told the BBC the party was on course for ‘a bit of a battering’.

A Conservative Party spokesman said of Runcorn: ‘This result is a damning verdict on Keir Starmer’s leadership which has led to Labour losing a safe seat.

‘Just 10 months ago Labour won an enormous majority, including in this seat with 52 per cent of the vote, but their policies have been a punch in the face for the people of Runcorn.’

Voters headed to the polls across England in 23 council elections, six mayoral contests, and one parliamentary by-election.

Up for grabs are more than 1,600 council seats, half-a-dozen regional mayors, and the new MP for Runcorn and Helsby.

It is the first big test for Britain’s political parties since last July’s general election, at which Labour secured a landslide win.

Results did not start dropping until after 2am, with mayors and the by-election first. 

Council votes will come in later as most do not start counting until the morning.    

The parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby was triggered by Mike Amesbury’s resignation from the House of Commons.

It came after he was jailed for 10 weeks for punching a constituent while drunk in Frodsham, Cheshire, last October.

Amesbury spent three nights in HMP Altcourse, Merseyside, in February before successfully appealing his sentence.

He won Runcorn and Helsby for Labour at July’s general election with a 14,696-vote majority.

Reform came second to Labour in the Cheshire constituency last summer, while the Tories came third – more than 900 votes behind Reform.

Labour has the most seats on Durham Council (52 out of 126), but has been shut out of power for the past four years by a multi-party coalition that includes the Tories, the Lib Dems, Greens and various independents.

Before losing control in 2021, Labour had enjoyed a majority in Durham continuously since 1925.

At this election the council is being reduced in size from 126 to 98 seats, which makes the outcome hard to predict. Labour will hope to regain full control, but is facing a new challenge from Reform.

One senior Labour source told MailOnline: ‘Durham could be a bigger story than Runcorn. The results were awful last time, I think they will be worse this time. Reform has an outside chance of running the council. Considering we ran the show for 102 years up to 2021 it’ll be devastating.’ 

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey was optimistic about his party’s prospects as polls closed.

‘We are expecting to see big gains against the Conservatives in their former Middle England heartlands,’ he said.

‘Last year the Liberal Democrats won a record number of MPs and became the largest third party in 100 years. Now we are on course for our seventh year of local election gains, making this our best ever winning streak.

‘Voters have delivered their verdict on a Conservative Party that broke the country and a Labour government that is too timid to fix it.’