VICTORIOUS Nigel Farage has blasted critics who mocked his ambitions of becoming the nation’s next Prime Minister — as he declared “they’re not laughing now.”;
Reform UK’s leader launched a smash-and-grab raid in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election with victory by just six votes over Labour as he laid out a path to .
His insurgent party, which will now have five MPs, was also celebrating seizing control of eight , 628 council seats and winning two mayoral races.
Voting experts estimate that if a national poll had taken place on Thursday, would have finished with 30 per cent of the vote, ten per cent ahead of Labour.
The Lib Dems would be on 17 per cent with the Tories pushed into fourth with 15 per cent.
as he revelled in Reform’s astonishing success — before blasting those who poked fun when he said .
He reckoned: “They’re not laughing now, are they? They’ve seen this Reform-quake. That’s what’s going on across the country today.
“These are the most astonishing set of local election results in the history of our country.”;
Speaking at a victory rally in County Durham, he told supporters he was convinced Reform could “make history”; and go on and win the next .
Reform seized control of Staffs, Derbys, Notts and Lincs councils plus those of , Lancs, Durham and Doncaster.
Mr Farage guaranteed that he will do everything possible to ensure are not allowed to locate in counties which Reform now control.
His party swept Labour and the Tories aside although the Lib Dems took control of Oxfordshire, Cambs and Shropshire councils.
The Greens also picked up more councillors.
Pushed as to whether he would consider an electoral , Mr Farage gave a flat “No”;.
He added: “I don’t want to do a deal with them. We’re going to win the next election on our own.”;
Reform’s spectacular night began in the former safe Labour seat in vacated after then MP punched a constituent.
Victory in Runcorn and Helsby was rubber-stamped for Reform’s Sarah Pochin a little after 6am following a recount.
She overturned a Labour majority of almost 14,700 as Reform’s vote share surged.
Speaking at the count, Mr Farage said: “We’ve dug very deep into the Labour vote and, in other parts of , we’ve dug deep into the Conservative vote.
“We are now, after tonight there’s no question, in most of the country, we are now the main opposition party to this Government.”;
Former Tory Minister Andrea Jenkyns added to the joy by winning the Greater mayoralty with a majority of almost 40,000 over her old party.
, a former boxer and medallist at the Olympics, in Hull and East Yorkshire. What followed during yesterday afternoon was a steady procession of victories for the party as it seized eight councils.
The runaway success prompted Mr Farage to declare that Reform had “the for lunch”;.
He also said the polls marked “the end of two party politics as we know it”;.
He said it was the “beginning of the end of the Conservative Party”; which he said had been “wiped out”; in the shires of England.
Labour did hold on in the mayoral races in Doncaster, the West of England and North Tyneside but Reform were snapping at their heels in second place.
Polling expert Prof John Curtice said it was the first time that a party other than the Tories or Labour had been ahead in the projected national share forecast, based on the results in 1,100 wards.
He said Reform’s 30 per cent was ahead of the 23 per cent saw in 2013.
He also said it was the first time the two main parties combined failed to hit 50 per cent.
Mr Farage appeared in a hurry to get on with setting policy for his new councils saying he is prepared to battle central government over migrants being housed in his party’s areas. He said very many people he had spoken to in the North were “enraged”;.
He said: “They get up early, they go to work, they pay their taxes, and they see young men crossing the , being dumped into the North of England getting everything for free.”;
Mr Farage added that Reform would try to prevent central government from “plonking scores, hundreds of these young men in these counties that we now control”;.
He added that Reform would try to scale back councils’ work “to what it ought to be”;, end working from home and sack staff working on climate change or diversity.
In the address, he said Reform was now the party of the working man and woman.
He said: “We want to reindustrialise Britain, reindustrialise the North, and give men and women well-paid, skilled and a sense of pride in their communities and what they do.
“And we can’t do that from Durham county council, but we can set the markers for how we intend to govern.
“You have cleared a very important hurdle today. And next year we’ll clear those hurdles in the Welsh and Scottish parliamentary elections.
“And I believe, as I think you believe, we really will make history and win the next general election.”;
Election expert Will Jennings said Reform were doing better in areas with fewer graduates and where people are employed in sectors such as manufacturing.
