Nigel Farage and Reform UK are celebrating their biggest ever by-election win. The party set a new record for a Reform vote by winning 65.3% in the election for the Skelton East ward for Redcar & Cleveland council. Labour was second with 19.2% of the vote. It meant Reform gained the seat from the Conservatives.
Previously, Reform’s highest vote share was 65.1%, recorded in the Thornley & Wheatley Hill ward in County Durham, at the 2025 local elections. Latest national polls show Reform remains in the lead, although the gap between the parties is still close enough that it is impossible to predict the outcome of the next general election, which may not come until 2029.
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Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch won plaudits from Tory supporters for her conference speech promising to abolish stamp duty if the Conservatives win the next election.
She pledged to impose a “golden rule” on her budget plans, spending only half of any savings made through spending cuts, with the rest going to reduce the deficit.
And she said she would cut student numbers, saving £3 billion that would then be spent on doubling the apprenticeship budget.
But the major defection that some in the party feared would take place on Wednesday morning did not come, while Mrs Badenoch attacked her opponents, vowing to reverse Labour policies and accusing Sir Keir Starmer, Nigel Farage, Jeremy Corbyn and Sir Ed Davey of “shaking the same magic money tree”.
Huge Reform Victory as Nigel Farage Celebrates Biggest-Ever By-Election Win
Nigel Farage has celebrated a striking by-election victory for Reform UK after securing a commanding result in Clacton, turning the contest into another major test of the party’s growing influence in British politics.
Farage won 22,239 votes, representing about 63 per cent of the vote, and secured a majority of 12,784. The result allowed him to return to Westminster with a substantially increased vote share compared with his performance in the 2024 general election. Official parliamentary figures record the contest as a Reform UK hold, with turnout at 44 per cent.
For Farage and his supporters, the result represented much more than the retention of a parliamentary seat.
The Reform leader had deliberately triggered the by-election after resigning his position as Clacton’s MP. That decision turned the contest into a highly personal political gamble. Rather than simply defending a seat at the next general election, Farage effectively asked voters to decide whether they wanted him to continue representing them immediately.
The result gave him the answer he was seeking.
Farage not only won but increased his support compared with the 2024 general election. Reform UK said he received more votes than he had obtained two years earlier, when he had overturned a Conservative majority of more than 8,000.
That increase became one of the central talking points following the count.
Farage’s political opponents could point to the unusual nature of the contest, including the decision by several established parties not to field candidates. Count Binface, the satirical political candidate, finished second with 9,455 votes, or roughly 27 per cent. The unusual result meant that the contest did not resemble a conventional three- or four-way parliamentary battle.
Nevertheless, the scale of Farage’s vote was undeniable.
The Reform leader presented the result as evidence that voters were prepared to reject the established political parties and support his party’s broader political agenda. In his response after the election, he portrayed the contest as a confrontation between local voters and what he called the political establishment.
That interpretation is politically significant because Reform’s growth has increasingly challenged both Labour and the Conservatives.
The party’s performance in local elections earlier in 2026 had already demonstrated that it could win support beyond its traditional base. Reform UK has also recorded a series of council by-election victories, including seven wins on a single night in June.
The Clacton result therefore arrived against a wider background of electoral expansion.
For Farage personally, however, the significance was even greater.
He has spent years attempting to establish himself as a permanent force in British politics. After multiple unsuccessful attempts to enter the House of Commons, his election as Clacton’s MP in 2024 finally gave him a Westminster platform.
The latest by-election strengthened that position.
It also demonstrated the extent to which Farage has been able to turn his political profile into a highly personalised campaign. His decision to resign and seek a fresh mandate created considerable attention around the constituency and ensured that the result would be interpreted as a verdict on his leadership.
The 63 per cent vote share gave Reform a clear numerical advantage.
But the result also raises questions about how such a victory should be interpreted nationally.
A by-election is not the same as a general election. Turnout is usually lower, local circumstances can have an unusually large impact and individual candidates can attract support that would not necessarily transfer directly to a national contest.
In Clacton, those factors were particularly important because Farage himself was the central figure in the election.
The absence of candidates from several established parties also changed the dynamics of the contest.
That does not make the result insignificant. On the contrary, winning more than 22,000 votes and securing almost two-thirds of ballots cast demonstrates substantial local support. But the wider political implications need to be considered alongside the specific circumstances of the constituency.
For Reform UK, the most important message may therefore be momentum rather than a precise prediction of future national results.
The party wants voters to believe that its success is no longer confined to protest voting or isolated constituencies. Its growing presence in local government, combined with parliamentary victories, is part of an attempt to establish Reform as a permanent competitor to the traditional parties.
The Clacton victory fits neatly into that narrative.
It also gives Farage a stronger platform from which to attack both Labour and the Conservatives.
On immigration, taxation, public spending, Britain’s relationship with Europe and the size of the state, Reform has sought to differentiate itself from the established parties. Farage has repeatedly argued that voters who feel ignored by Westminster have an alternative.
The political environment has provided opportunities for that message.
The Conservatives have faced pressure from voters attracted to Reform, while Labour has had to deal with dissatisfaction over economic conditions, public services and other domestic issues.
Farage has attempted to position Reform as the party capable of benefiting from frustration with both sides of the traditional political divide.
His Clacton victory gives that argument a highly visible example.
Yet there are also challenges ahead.
A growing party must demonstrate that it can turn electoral enthusiasm into effective political organisation. Winning a by-election is one thing; maintaining support across hundreds of constituencies is another.
Reform’s expansion into local government means it now has representatives responsible for councils and public services. That creates opportunities to demonstrate its approach to governing, but it also exposes the party to greater scrutiny.
The same applies to Farage himself.
As the most recognisable figure in Reform UK, his political decisions and public statements will continue to attract enormous attention. The stronger the party becomes, the more voters will expect detailed answers about how its policies would work in practice.
The Clacton result does not remove those questions.
Instead, it increases the pressure on Reform to provide convincing answers.
For Labour and the Conservatives, meanwhile, the result offers another reminder that Reform cannot simply be dismissed as a temporary protest movement.
The party has demonstrated that it can win elections and mobilise significant numbers of voters. Its local election performance earlier in the year and subsequent by-election victories have reinforced that point.
But the established parties also have reasons not to overinterpret the result.
Clacton has distinctive political characteristics, and Farage is an unusually high-profile candidate. The absence of several traditional party candidates means that the result cannot simply be translated into a national vote share.
The real test for Reform will be whether it can reproduce its support in constituencies where voters face a conventional choice between Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Reform candidates.
That question will remain central as the party continues its expansion.
For Farage, however, the immediate political reality is straightforward: he has won the contest he deliberately created.
He now returns to Westminster with a renewed mandate from Clacton and with a result that gives his supporters considerable political ammunition.
The victory also strengthens the argument that Reform’s rise is changing the shape of British politics. Whether that transformation ultimately produces a lasting realignment remains an open question, but the party’s electoral progress is increasingly difficult for its rivals to ignore.
The Clacton by-election was therefore both a local contest and a national political spectacle.
Farage turned the election into a referendum of sorts on his own political future. Voters gave him a decisive victory, while Reform supporters interpreted the result as another rejection of the established political order.
The next challenge is considerably harder.
Reform must demonstrate that victories associated with Farage’s personal popularity can become a broader organisational and electoral phenomenon.
For now, the Clacton result gives the party a powerful moment of celebration.
Farage has returned to Parliament with 22,239 votes, a majority of 12,784 and a vote share of about 63 per cent.
Whatever interpretation voters place on the wider political meaning of the result, one fact is clear: the Clacton by-election has provided Reform UK with another significant electoral milestone and given Nigel Farage renewed momentum as he attempts to reshape the political landscape.