San Francisco Frontiers - Hard-right romps through UK polls slapping aside main parties

Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, also seized control of their first regional councils in Thursday's vote, and captured their first two mayoral posts.

The results confirmed a trend that Britain is entering an era of multi-party politics, reshaping a political landscape dominated by Labour and the Conservative Party since the start of the 20th century.

"We sank the HMS Conservative Party. They are over, they are finished," Farage crowed to a crowd gathered in celebration in the central town of Stafford.

"We can and we will win this next general election," the Brexit champion said.

Farage's insurgents won a knife-edge parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, overturning what had been a safe Labour majority.

The party also won its first ever mayoral posts in Lincolnshire as well as the Hull and East Yorkshire mayoralty - both newly created positions.

And Reform won its first regional and local councils, including central Staffordshire, northwestern Lancashire and Kent in the south.

The group's strong Runcorn showing adds impetus to Reform's momentum seen at last year's general election.

- 'Disappointing' -

Retiree Christopher Davies, who voted Reform because he felt "disgruntled" with Labour, told AFP the result was a "wake up call for both" the country's main parties.

"I don't agree with all the things that Reform are on about, but... it was just out of total disillusionment with the system," the 67-year-old said.

The polls were the first since Labour leader Keir Starmer became prime minister and Kemi Badenoch took over the reins of the struggling opposition Conservatives last year.

Starmer called the results "disappointing", pledging to go "further and faster" in delivering change.

Badenoch conceded the public was "still not yet ready to trust us".

The Conservatives did regain one mayoral post from Labour.

But with 19 out of 23 councils counted late Friday, they had lost around 500 council seats out of the 1,641 across 23 local authorities which were up for grabs. Labour was down 144.

Most appeared to have gone to Reform, which added 532 councillors, but the Tories were also squeezed by the traditional third party, the centrist Liberal Democrats, who gained 132.

The left-wing Greens also made gains, particularly in the south.

- Political fragmentation -

Even though turnout was low at around 30 percent, analyst Tim Bale from Queen Mary University of London, said it was "an incredibly impressive performance" by Reform.

Reform's new Greater Lincolnshire mayor Andrea Jenkyns said the "fightback to save the heart and soul of our great country has now begun".

But Runcorn teaching assistant and Labour voter Rebecca Thomas, 44, accused Reform of "creating a lot of hatred, really, and I'm quite scared for our children's future".

Reform's by-election victory takes its number of parliamentary seats to five, an unprecedented number for a British hard-right party in the 650-seat chamber.

The local council seats in play on Thursday were only a fraction of England's 17,000 councillors.

Surveys show Britons are increasingly disillusioned amid anaemic economic growth, high levels of irregular immigration and flagging public services.

Reform, which has vowed to "stop the boats" of irregular migrants crossing the English Channel, is hoping Thursday's successes will help it build its grassroots activism before the next general election -- likely in 2029.

'Change course' -

Labour won the national vote that propelled it to power last July with just 33.7 percent of the vote, the lowest share for any party winning a general election since World War II.

At a declaration in Runcorn shortly before 6:00 am (0500 GMT) election officials said that after a recount Reform's Sarah Pochin had won by just six votes, narrowly defeating Labour candidate Karen Shore.

That was a 17-percent swing from Labour to Reform, after the party won the seat with 53 percent of the vote last year.

The result showed the party "must change course," said Labour MP Brian Leishman.

"If we don't improve people's living standards then the next government will be an extreme right wing one," he warned.

P.Thomas--SFF