Nigel Farage has hailed a major milestone for Reform UK after the party secured yet more council by-election victories overnight. Mr Farage revealed that Reform is now the first British political party to have won over 50 council seats since the May elections earlier this year.
The party now regularly enjoys by-election victories every week, with a further two last night taking Reform over the line. They defeated Labour in the Roebuck ward on Stevenage Council, winning 39.2% of the vote from a standing start having not stood last time. Meanwhile Labour crashed by 12.4% coming a distant second.
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Farage hailed the results (Image: Getty)
Council by-election results since May (Image: Election Maps UK)
Mr Farage’s party also took Garlinge ward on Thanet Council from an independent, again securing 44.6% of the vote with a 47 point swing.
However the party did suffer a headache as the LibDems picked up a council seat from Reform in Bromsgrove.
Reacting this morning, Mr Farage said: “Reform UK becomes the first party to win 50 local council by-elections since May 1st [hand clapping emoji].”
Since the May local elections earlier this year, Reform has won 51 council by-elections, gaining 43 new seats.
The LibDems are in second with 45 wins, but gaining just 17; while the Tories are in third with 16 wins having lost 17 seats.
Labour has lost more by-elections than any other party since May (Image: Getty)
Labour have won just 13 by-elections since May, losing a whopping 34 seats they previously held.
Despite their rise in the polls, the Green Party has gained just two new seats.
Reform now has impressive showings every Thursday, when council by-elections are held, further proving their national poll lead is a real threat to the main parties.
Mr Farage’s party swept to an astonishing victory in May’s local elections, gaining 677 councillors and 10 councils, many more than experts had predicted.
The party has led in every single national opinion poll since early April, some putting Mr Farage on more than Labour and the Tories combined.
Nigel Farage Hails Major Reform Milestone After Huge By-Election Victories
Nigel Farage has hailed what he described as a major milestone for Reform UK after the party recorded a series of significant victories in by-elections, arguing that the results demonstrate growing support for his political movement across parts of Britain.
The latest contests have provided Reform with opportunities to test its support outside Westminster and to challenge both Labour and the Conservatives in areas where established parties have traditionally been competitive. Farage has used the results to reinforce his argument that Britain’s political landscape is changing and that Reform intends to play a much larger role in future elections.
One of the most notable recent results came in East Markham, on Bassetlaw District Council, where Reform candidate Matthew Evans won with 436 votes, almost half of the ballots cast. The Conservatives finished second with 250 votes, while Labour received 151 and the Greens 42. Reform said the result represented a 44-point swing from the Conservatives.
Farage responded by celebrating the victory and directing particular criticism at the Conservatives.
For Reform, the importance of the result was not simply the number of votes. East Markham had previously been a Conservative-held ward, and the party had enjoyed a substantial advantage at the previous contest. Reform’s victory therefore became another example used by Farage to argue that traditional party loyalties are changing.
The result followed two further council by-election victories announced by Reform earlier in September.
In Eckington, Derbyshire, Reform candidate Jamie Hodgson won after the party moved from having no vote share at the previous election to 40 per cent. Labour, which had previously taken 60 per cent, fell to 28 per cent.
In Hutton & Locking in North Somerset, Reform’s William Jones also won. The party said its share increased from zero at the previous election to 38 per cent, while the Conservatives fell from 37 per cent to 15 per cent.
Taken together, the contests gave Farage an opportunity to present Reform as a party capable of winning elections rather than simply attracting attention in national polling.
That distinction matters.
A political party can receive significant support in opinion surveys without necessarily translating that support into victories under Britain’s electoral system. By-elections provide a more immediate test because voters choose directly between candidates in a particular constituency or ward.
However, individual by-elections also need to be interpreted carefully.
Turnout can be substantially lower than at a general election, and local circumstances can have a major effect on the result. Candidate reputation, local issues, campaigning and the circumstances that caused the vacancy can all influence voting behaviour.
Nevertheless, repeated victories across different areas can provide political parties with useful evidence about where their organisation is gaining traction.
Reform has been keen to emphasise precisely that point.
Farage’s political project has changed considerably over the years. He first became internationally prominent through his campaign for Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union and later transformed Reform UK from a primarily Brexit-focused political vehicle into a broader party covering immigration, taxation, regulation, public spending and national sovereignty.
The recent by-election results fit into that wider transformation.
The party is attempting to establish a permanent presence at local and national levels rather than relying solely on its performance at general elections.
The parliamentary picture is also significant.
In August 2026, Farage returned to the House of Commons after winning the Clacton by-election. Parliament’s official results show that he received 22,239 votes, compared with 9,455 for Count Binface. The result gave Reform a hold of the seat after Farage had resigned earlier in the year.
That victory was particularly relevant because it returned the Reform leader to Parliament while giving him a platform from which to lead the party during a period of rapid political change.
The latest local victories have added another layer to that story.
Reform can now point to electoral successes at different levels of government, although the scale and significance of each result vary.
For Farage, however, the political message is straightforward: voters are willing to choose Reform candidates where the party previously had little or no established presence.
That argument is likely to be central to Reform’s strategy going forward.
The Conservatives face an especially important challenge because several recent Reform victories have come at the expense of Conservative candidates.
The two parties compete for some of the same voters, particularly on issues such as immigration, taxation, national identity and government spending.
The Conservative response has therefore increasingly focused on distinguishing the party from Reform while attempting to recover voters who have moved toward Farage’s movement.
Labour faces a different challenge.
The Eckington result, where Reform replaced a ward previously dominated by Labour, illustrates that Reform’s appeal is not confined exclusively to former Conservative voters.
Farage has repeatedly attempted to broaden his coalition beyond traditional Conservative supporters. Economic concerns, dissatisfaction with public services and frustration with mainstream politics can attract voters from different political backgrounds.
That creates uncertainty for all established parties.
Yet electoral results should not be interpreted as evidence that Reform has secured permanent support in these communities.
Local political loyalties can change again. Voters may return to another party at a general election, particularly if the political circumstances are different.
By-elections are therefore snapshots rather than definitive measures of long-term voting behaviour.
The wider political context is also complicated by recent polling.
A YouGov poll conducted on 20 and 21 September 2026 put Reform and the Conservatives level on 21 per cent, while Labour was on 23 per cent. The poll surveyed 2,286 voters and came amid considerable debate about Reform’s funding and internal controversies.
Another September YouGov measure found that 69 per cent of Britons had an unfavourable opinion of Farage, compared with 24 per cent who viewed him favourably. These figures demonstrate that electoral support for a party and personal popularity for its leader are not necessarily the same thing.
This distinction is important when considering Farage’s claims about Reform’s momentum.
The party can celebrate individual electoral victories while still facing substantial opposition elsewhere.
That is normal in a fragmented political environment.
Britain’s electoral landscape has become more complicated since the 2024 general election. Reform, the Greens, Liberal Democrats, Conservatives and Labour are all competing for different combinations of voters, and local contests can produce results that would have been difficult to predict from traditional party loyalties alone.
The House of Commons Library’s September 2026 review of by-elections illustrates this fragmentation. Since the 2024 general election, parliamentary by-elections have produced victories for Reform, the Greens, Labour, Conservatives and the SNP in different constituencies.
That means Reform’s recent victories are significant within the party’s development, but they form part of a broader period of electoral volatility.
For Farage, the next challenge will be maintaining that momentum.
Winning a by-election requires a concentrated campaign. Building a national political organisation capable of competing across hundreds of constituencies requires considerably more.
Reform will need candidates, local activists, funding, policy detail and organisational structures capable of surviving the intense scrutiny that accompanies national politics.
Its opponents will also continue to challenge the party’s policies and candidates.
The Conservatives are likely to argue that Reform’s policies carry economic or practical risks, while Labour and other parties will seek to prevent Reform from expanding its support among their own voters.
Farage, meanwhile, is likely to continue presenting Reform as an alternative to the established parties.
His political message has consistently focused on the idea that Britain needs significant changes rather than incremental adjustments. The recent by-election results provide him with concrete electoral examples to support that argument.
Whether those victories represent a lasting transformation remains an open question.
What can be established is that Reform has won a number of recent contests in areas where it previously had little or no electoral presence, and that Farage has used those results to highlight the party’s expanding organisation and electoral reach.
The significance of the victories will ultimately depend on what happens next.
If Reform continues to win local contests, builds stronger organisations and maintains parliamentary representation, its position within British politics will become increasingly important.
If support proves more temporary, the by-election victories may instead be remembered as part of a period of unusually fluid politics.
For now, Farage is clearly determined to portray the results as evidence of a much larger political shift.
The message from Reform is that voters are increasingly prepared to abandon established parties and support candidates offering a different political programme.
Its opponents will dispute that interpretation and point to the limitations of individual by-elections, polling fluctuations and the continuing strength of other parties.
The coming months will provide further tests.
For Reform UK, the task is no longer simply to attract attention. It is to convert individual victories into a sustainable political organisation capable of competing across Britain.
The recent by-elections have given Farage another opportunity to argue that his party is moving in that direction.
Whether the results mark a temporary surge or a longer-term change in British politics will depend on what Reform does with the political momentum it has gained.