Live results: Reform takes ten county councils in local elections landslide

Reform is set to pick up hundreds of council seats around the country both from the Conservatives and Labour, in a significant electoral breakthrough.

So far, the party has gained more than 500 seats, with the vast majority still to be counted and formally announced.

In a major coup for Reform, it has taken control of five councils: in Staffordshire, which had been in Tory hands since 2009, Derbyshire, Kent, Durham and Lincolnshire.

Full results from more than 1,600 council elections are expected throughout Friday afternoon, into the evening – but early trends indicate that Reform are set to win hundreds of council seats.

Early on Friday morning, Reform’s Sarah Pochin was announced as the winner in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election – edging out Labour by just six votes.

Andrea Jenkyns, the former Conservative MP and Truss era junior minister, has been elected as the first Mayor of Lincolnshire – the first mayoralty that the party has ever won.

Nigel Farage’s party has picked up around 39 per cent of the vote from the initial council results.

Speaking on the morning media round, Labour Party Chair Ellie Reeves said that “change takes time”.

Reeves said: “People don’t feel change overnight, but we’re getting on with delivery”.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch broke cover in the early afternoon with a post on X, which said: “These were always going to be a very difficult set of elections coming off the high of 2021, and our historic defeat last year – and so it’s proving”.

“The renewal of our party has only just begun and I’m determined to win back the trust of the public and the seats we’ve lost, in the years to come”.

Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy leader, said that her party is “deeply concerned” about the success that Reform has seen overnight.

In an interview with BBC Breakfast, Cooper said that Sir Ed Davey’s party “can replace the Conservatives as the party of Middle England”.

She added: “There are people looking for alternatives. It’s our job to show it’s the Liberal Democrats who can offer the change that the country is crying out for.”

A sea change?

The initial results suggest that swathes of the UK have switched allegiance since the general election in 2024 – and even more dramatically since the last time that these seats were up for grabs in 2021.

At that cycle four years ago, Boris Johnson was at the height of his powers after the broadly successful rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine – months before the emergence of the ‘Partygate’ scandal that ultimately brought down his premiership.

These strong results have been a poisoned chalice for the Conservatives, with poll numbers down more than 20 per cent down since 2021, who are defending more than 1,000 seats.

Labour, meanwhile, are defending around 100 – and Reform are defending just a handful.