A jubilant Nigel Farage suggested that Reform UK is on course to win the next general election after its local election successes. The Reform leader said his insurgent party was “way exceeding anything that I thought”.
It comes as Reform has taken a swathe of council seats from Labour in its traditional northern heartlands. Speaking in the early hours at the party’s Millbank headquarters, he compared the gains to clearing the famously difficult Becher’s Brook Grand National jump.
He said: “This for me was our Becher’s Brook. If we cleared Becher’s Brook and landed well, we go on to win the Grand National.
“What is very clear to me is that our voters will stick with us now all the way through.
“They are not lending their vote to Reform.”
Mr Farage went on: “I think what you’re witnessing is an historic change in British politics. Forget left-right, there is no more left-right. It is gone, it is out of the window, it’s finished.
“As you can see, we are scoring stunning percentages in traditional old Labour areas.
“We’re currently averaging about 39% of the vote, of the seats that are in already, we’re currently on 145 seats won.
“We are way exceeding anything that I thought.”
Looking ahead to results expected later on Friday, he added: “What you’ll see is the same pattern repeated across the south when we win Essex by an extraordinary margin and Norfolk by an extraordinary margin.”
It comes as Reform gained 15 councillors in Halton, Cheshire, which was the first local authority to complete its count. In some wards, Reform won with more than 50% of the vote.
In Hartlepool, Reform won all 12 seats on offer, pushing the previously Labour-held council into no overall control, while Labour also lost control of Redditch, where Reform won eight of the nine seats up for election.
Reform claimed that Labour voters “are switching directly” to Mr Farage’s outfit.
The party said on X: “It’s clear that Labour voters are switching directly to Reform.
“We are penetrating the red wall in a way the pollsters and experts simply didn’t predict. Britain wants Reform.”