Posted on 05/02/2025 1:42:19 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Britain’s populist, anti-immigration party Reform UK has beaten Labour by a tiny margin in a by-election, dealing the government a mid-term setback and ruffling the country’s historically resilient two-party hegemony.
Reform, led by the United Kingdom’s disruptor-in-chief Nigel Farage, claimed its fifth Member of Parliament (MP) by winning the industrial northwestern town of Runcorn by just six votes, following a recount.
It marked a stunning reversal in fortunes for center-left Labour, which comfortably claimed the seat on its way to a landslide victory in a general election just 10 months ago.
“It’s been a huge night for Reform,” Farage told reporters on Friday. “This is heartland Labour Party, their vote has collapsed and much of it has come to us.”
Thursday’s vote was triggered when the Labour lawmaker Mike Amesbury resigned earlier this year after he was convicted for punching a man in the street.
Reform also won a mayoral election in Greater Lincolnshire, central England, but Labour held on to retain three other mayoralties.
Prime Minister and Labour leader Keir Starmer conceded to journalists that the results were “disappointing” for his party, but pledged to “go further and faster on the change that people want to see.”
Further results from Thursday’s local elections, which were only held in some regions of England, are expected to be declared on Friday.
The results from Britain’s revolving local electoral calendar are notoriously difficult to extrapolate to the sentiment of the nation as a whole.
But this offers some real evidence behind Reform’s months-long rise in momentum and opinion polling. The party is now regularly graded as the most popular in the country, less than a year on from a national poll in which it placed third.
Sitting governments typically perform worse when facing the electorate during their terms of office,
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Muslims rejoice.
They had an election yesterday, had a recount and know the results today? How can such a thing be?
The Labor Party is solid left, not center left.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.