English local elections: Tories reject claim Reform UK main opposition after ultra-slim byelection win – UK politics live | Breaking News & Latest UK Updates

English local elections: Tories reject claim Reform UK main opposition after ultra-slim byelection win – UK politics live — The Conservative co-chairNigel Huddlestonhas rejected Reform UK’s claim that it is now the main opposition to Labour. (See6.40am.) Speaking on the Tod...

The Conservative co-chairNigel Huddlestonhas rejected Reform UK’s claim that it is now the main opposition to Labour. (See6.40am.)

Speaking on the Today programme, Huddleston said:

We do have the humility we need to communicate to the public, and are doing, that we understand why they lost trust and faith in us.

But we are under new leadership now. [Kemi Badenoch has] only been leader six months. We’re coming from a very, very difficult time period after the last election. But our job … we will continue to hold this disastrous Labour government to account.

But, in an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Huddleston also admitted that it would take the party “a long time” to win back the trust of voters. He said:

It’s going to take us a long time to build back that trust and confidence … Kemi has said this is a marathon, not a sprint.

Another leftwing Labour MP has said the Runcorn and Helsby byelection result shows why the Labour government must change course. This is fromKim Johnsonon social media.

Runcorn is a warning we can’t ignore. Voters want change – and if we don’t offer it with bold, hopeful policies that rebuild trust, the far right will.

If we don’t step up now, the alternative won’t be more of the same – it’ll be an extreme right-wing government.

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, told the BBC that he thought the election results showed that “people who have traditionally voted Conservative, who thought that they represented their values, and realise that they no longer do that”.

As examples, Davey talked about caring about the rule of law, standing up to the threat from President Trump, championing social care and being opposed to water companies letting sewage into rivers. He went on:

People are angry with the Conservatives for having allowed the water companies to get away with pumping their filthy sewage into our rivers and our seas and they see us the ones championing [that cause].

So many different issues, middle England has switched and is switching even more to the Liberal Democrats. And I think that’s quite a dramatic change in British politics.

Here is video ofNigel Farageclaiming that Reform UK are now the opposition to Labour.

Keir Starmer has finished his Q&A at the defence firm in Luton. He said he was now off to “mingle”, before taking questions from reporters a bit later.

Back in LutonKeir Starmeris still taking questions from the defence firm employees who – understandly – aren’t asking the PM questions that journalists would be asking.

The media questions are coming soon.

Ros Joneswas re-elected as Labour mayor ofDoncasterovernight. But only just. She was only 698 votes ahead of Reform UK.

In an interview with the BBC afterwards, Jones said the result showed the government needed to be listening more “to the man, woman and businesses on the street”. She also said that, on “certainly two or three occasions”, the government had got things wrong.

One was the winter fuel payment cut, she said. She said she denounced that as “wrong” as soon as it was announced.

Asked what the other mistakes were, she said:

They need to look again because actually putting up the cost of national insurance is hitting some of our smaller businesses, and of course the Pip [personal independence payment – the disability benefit being cut], which we know many people are worried about now.

Asked if she had a message forKeir Starmer, she replied:

What I’m saying to Keir is this – he needs to listen and take action, but also remember they’ve been in government a short length of time. We’ve got to drive places like Doncaster forward. Keir’s got to drive the country forward and actually deliver economic growth so all can prosper.

The first employee to ask a question is, unsurprisingly, not interested in a byelection elsewhere in the country, and instead asksStarmerabout the defence sector, and the problems generated for companies by protesters.

The second question is about the proportion of women working in the defence sector.

“12% – we’ve got to get that number up,” says Starmer.

He is talking about the proportion of women in the defence workforce – not Labour’s poll ratings.

Starmertells the defence workers he wants to say thank you to them on behalf of the nation.

He is now taking questions from members of staff.

Starmeris still talking about defence, and Ukraine. Still no mention of Runcorn …

Keir Starmeris in Luton this morning, where he is now speaking to a group of apprentices.

His comments are being broadcast live, but so far he has not said anything about the Runcorn defeat, or any of the other results.

Reform UK is normally described as a rightwing, or even a far-right party, mostly because of its stance on immigration and social issues. But some polling has been released this morning showing that, on some economic issues, Reform supporters are relatively leftwing. They are more “interventionist and protectionist” than average voters, according toApella Advisors, the consultancy that commissioned the research.

Summing up the findings, the firm says:

67% of Reform UK voters said that “Services such as water rail and energy should be run by the public sector, compared to 57% for the general public.

69% of Reform UK voters said that “Foreign ownership is a bad thing”, compared to 47% for the general public.

75% of Reform UK voters said that “Britain should protect its key industries from foreign competition,” compared to 53% for the general public.

68% of Reform UK voters said that “big companies in Britain pay too little tax”, compared to 63% for the general public.

In part, these findings reflect the fact thatNigel Faragehas deliberately shifted his party in this direction. Ukip was never interested in public ownership, but Reform UK led the way recently in calling for British Steel to nationalised.

Commenting on the results, James Kirkup, a partner at Apella Advisors, said:

Nigel Farage’s recent embrace of left-wing economic language appears to be resonating with his voters and could win over significant numbers of Labour voters. By following this trend in public opinion, there’s a chance that Reform could shape political debate around economics in the way that they have influenced the conversation about migration.

Adrian Ramsay, the Green party’s co-leader, told the BBC that he was confident that, for the eighth year in a row, the party would come out of the elections having gained seats not lost them. “People are responding to a Green record,” he said.

He also saidReform UKwould come under fresh scrutiny.

What does Reform offer? We’re now going to start to see people scrutinising, if they’ve got a Reform councillor, are they actually interested in the local community?

Are they going to be willing to put in the time? And what are their policies actually going to be at local level? Are they going to be willing, for example, to make sure that children with special educational needs [get the support they need]? Or are they going to continue to say that those needs are not real?

Gawain Towler, a former Reform UK press officer who was on the panel alongside Ramsay claimed that Nigel Farage had never said that. ButRamsaysaid Farage recently claimed that special educational needs and disabilitiesare being over-diagnosed.

Kemi Badenoch has ruled out a national pact with Reform UK, but many of her MPs think that such an arrangement is inevitable, includingEsther McVey, the former cabinet minister. Before the Runcorn and Helsby byelection, McVey saidthe Conservatives should stand asideto let Reform UK win it. McVey expressed her feeelings about Nigel Farage’s party again this morning in a poston social media.

Congratulations to my new constituency neighbour@SarahForRuncornon her dramatic by-election victory.I look forward to working with her for the benefit of the people of Cheshire.

Here is the BBC’s latest analysis of what is happening to the vote share in the local elections.

The leftwing Labour MPRichard Burgonhas also said Keir Starmer needs to change course in the light of the Runcorn and Helsby byelection result. In a poston social media, he said:

Labour’s defeat in Runcorn was entirely avoidable – and is the direct result of the party leadership’s political choices.

By pushing policies like cuts to disability benefits and scrapping the winter fuel allowance, the leadership is driving away our own voters – and letting Reform squeeze through.

The Labour leadership must urgently change course and govern with real Labour values to deliver the change people are crying out for.

It should start by ditching the plans to cut disability benefits and increase taxes on the wealthiest instead.

If it fails to deliver that real change, things could get far worse, with Reform waiting in the wings. And the consequences of that would be horrific for those our Party exists to represent.

Burgon was one of seven Labour MPs who had the whip withdrawn last year for voting for an SNP amendment to the king’s speech calling for the two-child benefit cap to be scrapped. He hadthe whip restored in February.

Prof John Curtice, the BBC commentator and leading psephologist, says the Tory losses in the local elections look as if they will be at the higher end of expectations.

In hislatest updatefor the BBC, he says:

Reform UK have, so far, been winning about 39% of the vote, which puts them 11 points ahead of the Conservatives. They have also won 79 seats - more than any other party.

In those same elections, the Conservatives have been trying to defend 99 seats and have only succeeded in defending 37 of them.

Unless their ability to hang on to seats improves throughout today, their total losses of seats is going to be towards the high end of what people were anticipating.

Lord Hayward, a Tory peer and elections expert, has said he expects the Tories to losebetween 475 and 525 council seats.

In an interview on BBC Breakfast, asked if Kemi Badenoch’s position as Conservative leader was secure,Nigel Huddleston, the party’s co-chair, said:

Kemi’s position is certainly solid. She’s only been leader for six months and she was out and about right across the country, and I can tell you this, everywhere we went, people wanted to see her more and hear more from her.

Asked about his use of the word “solid”, Huddleston said:

I say that in a really positive way. She’s very sensible, she’s very honest, she’s very straightforward. She doesn’t go around telling people what they want to hear. That’s the easy route in politics.

Although no one is expecting an imminent leadership challenge, many Conservative MPs think that Badenoch will be replaced before the next election.