Full recount in Runcorn and Helsby
Josh Halliday
This is astonishing. There’s going to be a full recount in the Runcorn and Helsby byelection as Reform UK were ahead by just four votes.
The mood in the count centre is one of utter disbelief. If the recount returns the same result, Reform UK will have overturned one of Labour’s safest seats by just four votes.
Key events
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has posted on X, saying the party has won in Runcorn and Helsby.
“Reform UK have won the Runcorn & Helsby by-election by 4 votes! Labour have demanded a recount. We are very confident we have won.”
Votes are currently being recounted in Runcorn and Helsby, with the results expected soon.
Reform UK looked on course to take control of Staffordshire County Council, after taking 24 of the 30 seats to be counted overnight, with Conservatives winning the other six, PA reports.
It means when counting resumes later on Friday, Reform need to win just eight more seats, which would give Nigel Farage’s party a majority on the council which has 62 seats.
Conservative council leader Alan White lost his seat to Reform in one of the first results of the night. His party previously controlled the council with 53 seats, with Labour holding five and independents four.
The four district and borough areas returning results overnight were Lichfield, Newcastle, South Staffordshire and Tamworth, and ballots will be counted later on Friday in the Cannock Chase, East Staffordshire, Stafford and Staffordshire Moorlands areas.
The Conservatives have controlled the county council since winning in 2009, claiming elections in 2013, 2017 and 2021.
Josh Halliday
Throughout our reporting in Runcorn and Helsby in recent months we encountered voters of all persuasions who said they simply either wouldn’t vote, or would do so very reluctantly.
This potential result – splitting Labour and Reform UK by just four votes – shows that every vote truly does count.
If the result stands – and we expect a formal declaration in about an hour – it would be hand Reform UK one of the narrowest parliamentary majorities in recent UK political history.
Since World War Two, two constituencies have been won by just two votes each, according to the BBC – once by the Liberal Democrats in 1997 and another by the Scottish National Party in 2017.
Robyn Vinter
Update from Doncaster:
Votes are still being counted in Doncaster, where it is impossible to tell which way things will go. Labour’s Ros Jones, in a burgundy suit, said she was still hopeful but if she didn’t win she would accept the electorate’s decision.
“That’s how democracy works,” she said.
She has been walking around the floor, with lots of people stopping to speak to her.
Meanwhile, no sign of Reform’s candidate Alex Jones. He was visibly nervous speaking to party members at a Reform event when he shared a stage with Nigel Farage a couple of weeks ago, and this evening some are joking that he’s worried he might actually win.
Full recount in Runcorn and Helsby
Josh Halliday
This is astonishing. There’s going to be a full recount in the Runcorn and Helsby byelection as Reform UK were ahead by just four votes.
The mood in the count centre is one of utter disbelief. If the recount returns the same result, Reform UK will have overturned one of Labour’s safest seats by just four votes.
Drama in Runcorn:
Candidates in the key Runcorn and Helsby byelection are being gathered because “a couple of doubtful votes” need to be checked, a senior council official has said.
That’s an indication of how close this contest will be. The parties are being given provisional results, before Labour and Reform UK decide whether to call a full recount.
That’s the territory we’re in.
More in from North Lincolnshire:
Reform UK candidate Dame Andrea Jenkyns was ahead after the first declaration in the contest to become the first North Lincolnshire mayor.
Boston Borough Council, one of the nine authorities that make up the mayoral area, said Dame Andrea had 7,285 votes, ahead of Conservatives (2,695), Lincolnshire Independents (1,193), Labour (897), Green (774) and Liberal Democrat (513).
Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice earlier said the party was “absolutely smashing it” in the contest, where Dame Andrea – a former Tory minister – is on course to win.
In the 2016 referendum, 75.6% of people in Boston voted to leave the EU – the highest proportion in the UK.
Ben Quinn
The tensions between Andrea Jenkyns, Reform UK’s candidate for the Greater Lincolnshire mayoralty, and her old Conservative colleagues were on display following her arrival at the county centre in Grimsby.
After arriving at the count centre, she was seen to embrace her Labour rival, Jason Stockwood, the tech investor and former chair of Grimsby Town Football Club, while she kept her distance from the Conservative candidate, Rob Waltham.
Jenkyns, who has been criticised by Waltham for not living in the area and at one stage faced accusations she was not eligible to stand, told the Guardian: “The figures are looking good and while a lot has yet to come hopefully it’s going to go my way.”
The former Conservative MP and minister said the results tonight were a key staging post in Reform’s project to win the next general election.
“Reform getting into places of power for the first time and we have to show we can deliver. We are going to be under scrutiny and if we can show what we can do then it will be a blueprint for government,” she added.
Jenkyns has promised “Doge Lincolnshire” to cut government waste – a reference to Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” in the US – and used the slogan “No to net zero madness” in her campaign.
Runcorn and Helsby: some ballot papers recounted
Josh Halliday
The battle for the Runcorn and Helsby by-election has come down to “within a hundred votes,” according to candidates briefed by local officials. A number of the ballot papers are being recounted because it’s so close. It’s “incredibly tight,” the acting returning officer told the candidates.
This is quite a dramatic turn of events after Nigel Farage was planning to make a grand entrance. The Reform UK leader is believed to be waiting in a car outside the count centre, presumably ready to make an appearance if his party wins.
The full North Tyneside mayoral result is in: Labour hold
Karen Clark (Lab) 16,230 (30.22%)
John Falkenstein (Reform) 15,786 (29.39%)
Liam Bones (C) 11,017 (20.51%)
Chloe-Louise Reilly (Green) 3,980 (7.41%)
John Appleby (LD) 3,453 (6.43%)
Cath Davis (Ind) 1,780 (3.31%)
Martin Uren (Ind) 1,460 (2.72%)
Lab maj 444 (0.83%)
Electorate 159,717; Turnout 53,706 (33.63%)
Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice said there was a “seismic shift” in politics taking place, PA reports.
He told Sky News that Reform was “absolutely smashing it” in Lincolnshire, with Dame Andrea Jenkyns on course to win the regional mayoral race and the party set for “very good” results in the county council contest.
He said: “There’s no doubt in my mind, I think Andrea Jenkyns has won this race in Greater Lincolnshire for the mayoral and I think we are going to have a very, very good night in terms of the county council.”
Mr Tice said the Runcorn and Helsby by-election was “very, very close, nip-and-tuck, way too close to call”.
He said there was a “seismic shift going on tonight in British politics, where Reform is is taking huge chunks of votes and seats from both the two main parties”.
Josh Halliday
More from Josh Halliday, who is reporting live from Runcorn:
Farage is expected to arrive at the Runcorn and Helsby byelection count imminently. I asked a Reform official whether that means they’ve won, and he replied with a broad grin. Labour figures, meanwhile, are looking pretty grim-faced. There’s still no sign of their candidate.
Local elections 2025: full mayoral and council results for England
Keep an eye on the all the results as they come in with our live update tracker below.
Robyn Vinter
The Doncaster mayoral count has just begun.
A total of 32% of the electorate turned out to vote, which is up from 28% in 2021. Postal vote turnout was 61%.
This could be an upset for Labour, with Ros Jones, the incumbent who has won three mayoral elections, facing a hefty challenge from Reform.
The younger party has a younger candidate in Alex Jones (no relation), an inexperienced politician in his 30s who works as a model and a forex trader.
Whoever wins here is likely to take the full council, votes for which are being counted tomorrow, with the result arriving early evening.
If Reform take Doncaster council, it will be the first time Labour has not been the largest party here since it was established 50 years ago. In a solid red heartland, such a seismic shift would tell Keir Starmer everything he needs to know about how the public think the prime minister and his cabinet is performing.
Josh Halliday
Nigel Farage is believed to be on his way to the Runcorn and Helsby byelection count – perhaps the strongest signal yet that Reform UK expects a narrow victory over Labour. The result would be a huge blow to Sir Keir Starmer in one of the party’s safest seats.
Labour has narrowly held the mayoralty of north Tyneside, less than 500 votes ahead of Reform
Ben Quinn
Labour’s Karen Clark won with 30% of the vote, compared to Reform on 29%, with the Conservatives on 21%.
The result came ahead of increasing jitters that Nigel Farage’s populist right party would pull off one of the surprises of the night in what would be a major steal from Labour.
Nevertheless, Reform’s gains appears to have been largely at the expense of Labour.
Reacting on BBC, Science Minister Peter, said: “A win is a win. We understand these are parts of the country that have real desperate need for change.”
“This is a good result for Labour. It shows that Labour is still in contention in parts of the country where we keep on being told that we are not.”
Josh Halliday
We think a result might be fairly close in the closely watched seat of Runcorn and also in Helsby. “It’s very close,” says a Reform UK official, although they definitely look the happier of any of the contenders right now.
Candidates have just been summoned to examine some of the spoiled ballots – those which haven’t been counted as a valid vote – and one observer notes: “I’ve seen more drawings of penises than I’ve ever seen in my life”. Another said there was a lot of “four letter words” directed at the parties.
Ben Quinn
Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice says he has ‘no doubt’ his party’s candidate has ‘convincingly won’ one of the biggest prizes of the night – the mayoralty of the newly created Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority.
Reform’s candidate, Andrea Jenkyns, has yet to arrive at the count centre here in the town of Grimsby.
He was much less bullish about the Runcorn by-election, saying he was “hearing some encouraging things.”
To be clear, we don’t yet have results from Greater Lincolnshire or Runcorn.
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Hertfordshire County results:
Votes for six of Hertfordshire County Council’s 78 seats were counted overnight by Broxbourne Borough Council, which traditionally is one of the earliest to announce general election results.
Conservatives won four of the seats and Reform UK the other two, on a turnout of 27.64%. The full results for Hertfordshire are not expected until late on Friday afternoon.
The Conservatives previously controlled the council with 43 seats.
