Full recount in Runcorn by-election after razor-thin result sees Reform ahead by just 4 votes

A FULL recount of the Runcorn by-election is underway after Reform claimed to have beaten Labour by just FOUR votes.

Nigel Farage is looking to land a major blow on Sir Keir Starmer by taking the once-safe Red Wall seat.

The razor-thin initial result saw Labour demand a full recount, meaning election staff have started all over again.

Reform’s chairman Zia Yusuf tweeted: Provisional announcement from Runcorn & Helsby is Reform wins by 4 votes. Labour has demanded a full recount. Here we go again...”;

A four-vote margin would be the closest ever by-election, highlighting how close the race has been.

Win or lose, it is a massive swing to Reform who have wiped out the near-15,000 majority Labour won in Runcorn last July.

In the wider local elections taking place across England, Reform have been winning both Labour and Tory council seats.

By just 4am, the right-wing insurgents had gained 44 councillors, with Labour down 12 and the Tories down 36.

The Runcorn by-election was triggered off then Labour MP Mike Amesbury punched a constituent to the ground in a fit of rage.

He quit the Commons following a suspended prison sentence, triggering the contest deep in Red Wall territory.

Sir Keir would have hoped to cling on to the North West constituency despite it becoming an early Reform target.

Mr threw the kitchen sink at the constituency, which is fertile territory for the insurgents looking to make inroads into working class, Brexit-leaning areas.

Four years ago when these council seats were last up for grabs, suffered a humiliating defeat in the Hartlepool by-election which led him to the brink of resigning.

More than 1,600 council seats are in play across 23 local authorities in England, making it the biggest first electoral test since last July’s general election.

Votes are currently being counted and results will pour in throughout Friday.

The went into the elections defending the most seats and are therefore equally expected to lose the most.

Pollster Lord Hayward reckoned would lose a mammoth 475-525 from 2021 when these seats were last contested.

Bracing for a bruising night, she has played down impending losses as a mere “correction”; to the heights reached four years ago under .

Riding high in the polls following a Covid vaccine bounce, it was an emphatic victory last time that led Mr Johnson daring to dream he could have a decade in power.

The main beneficiary of the Tory slump is set to be Mr Farage, who is forecast to snaffle between 400 to 450 council seats largely in the Midlands and the North.

Labour strategists have been managing expectations by insisting the council seats up for grabs are not their naturally fertile terrain.

On Thursday evening after polls closed, party chairman Ellie Reeves said the elections were always going to be tricky.”;

She said: “These elections were always going to be a challenge, being held largely in areas dominated by the Conservatives, often for decades.”;

She added: “We know people aren’t yet fully feeling the benefit and we are just as impatient for change as the rest of the country.

“However the results turn out this evening, this Labour government will go further and faster in turning our country around and giving Britain the future it deserves.”;

Doncaster is the only majority council Labour is defending in the elections.

But they are facing a major offensive from in this working class stronghold.

The West of England Mayoralty has seen a five-horse race with Labour, Tories, Reform, Lib Dems and the Greens all within the margin of error.

Whoever wins this tightly-fought contest will claim a coveted mayoralty vacated after Labour incumbent Dan Norris was arrested for rape.

Mr Farage has set his sights on the ultimate prize of becoming Prime Minister.

Despite leading a start-up party with a mere rump of MPs in the Commons, he some recent surveys.

Public frustration with immigration, wokeism and a struggling Tory party has presented an opening for Reform to cut through.