Adam Hart
Guest Reporter
Reform UK has scooped another council election win last night in what could be becoming a worrying trend for Labour.
Anita Stanley, Reform UK candidate in Bilston North (Wolverhampton), won the council by-election result with 34.8 per cent of the vote.
Labour was only able to secure 25.1 per cent of ballots cast as their vote share plummeted 46 per cent.
The Conservatives and Greens fared little better with drops of 11.4 per cent and 11.2 per cent respectively.
The result may only be a small council by-election, but commentators have been quick to highlight the resurgence in Reform’s electoral fortunes after only winning a disappointing five seats in the General Election, despite securing over four million votes.
From the General Election to October 29, Reform UK has won five per cent of the aggregate vote share in council elections, up 4.6 per cent. This is despite only contesting 35 of 105 council seats available in that time.
The party’s first win came in Marton council in Blackpool where they won the seat with 38.8 per cent of the vote, up 29.3 per cent. Labour lost the council seat as their vote share plummeted 23 per cent.
Since the General Election, Labour’s aggregate vote share in council elections fell 8.6 per cent, costing them 20 seats. The Conservatives were up 1.7 per cent, winning 15 seats.
Pundits have pointed to Reform potentially securing similar victories in Westminster by-elections.
One such by-election could be imminent in Runcorn & Helsby after Labour incumbent Mike Amesbury was filmed sucker punching a constituent after a boozy argument about Winter Fuel Payments led to fight on the street.
Amesbury has since had the whip removed, but it remains to be seen whether he will keep his job and is facing heavy pressure to resign.
The constituency would be a prime target for Reform. The populist party finished second there on July 4, leapfrogging the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, albeit still losing to Amesbury by 14,696 votes.
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A Reform UK spokesman said: "It’s quite clear that the people of Runcorn and Helsby deserve far better than this."
By-elections historically do not go the way of the incumbent government as the electorate sees it as a chance to punish their leaders for whatever unpopular decisions have recently been taken.
For Keir Starmer, this problem has been exacerbated by his plummeting approval rating, faster than any PM in modern history.
Different polls have found both Nigel Farage and Rishi Sunak to be more popular than Starmer after he cut the Winter Fuel Payment for millions of pensioners, surrendered the Chagos Islands, and raised taxes by £40billion.
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