Nigel Farage’s Reform Upends UK Politics With Election Surge

Nigel Farage, left, with Reform UK candidate Sarah Pochin in Widnes, UK, on May 2.Photographer: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images
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Nigel Farage’s Reform UK landed its biggest blow yet against Britain’s political establishment in Thursday’s local votes, winning a string of victories that highlight how the populist right-wing party is shifting Britain’s electoral landscape.

Reform overturned a huge Labour majority to win the parliamentary seat of Runcorn and Helsby, secured its first mayoralties in Greater Lincolnshire and Hull & East Yorkshire and won control of 10 councils. The party — formed under its current branding just four years ago — won hundreds of council seats as the Conservatives hemorrhaged support, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour also suffering heavy losses.