Farage takes first place in the local elections leaderboard, Starmer stumbles but takes comfort in the Tories tanking and a mother and daughter have an unexpected face off for one council seat.
Read all about it in this week's Who's Top Who's Not.
Top: Nigel Farage
Farage will be nothing short of chuffed going into the bank holiday weekend, celebrating Reform’s victory in Runcorn by just six votes. At the last election, former MP Mike Amesbury’s patch was Labour’s 49th safest seat. Which, following the closest by-election on record, will see former Conservative Councillor Sarah Pochin become Reform’s fifth MP.
In another blow to the mainstream parties, Reform’s Andrea Jenkyns, former Boris Johnson groupie, has become the first Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire with a whopping 40,000 vote majority. Staffordshire is also set to become the first Reform controlled council, which has been Conservative since 2009.
Last July may feel like a lifetime ago, but these results demonstrate that voters are still disillusioned with the status quo and will continue to vote for change until they see it. Farage’s party are cementing themselves as a credible alternative to mainstream offerings and will use this momentum to be seen as capable of becoming the opposition.
It's increasingly trendy to put ‘change’ in a slogan but Reform’s credibility, much like Labour’s, will rest upon its ability to deliver improved public services that the British are crying out for. Farage, never one to shy away from a good soundbite, will now face a sterner test: delivering results where it counts, crucial to Reform’s legitimacy in future electoral tests.
Mid: Kier Starmer
If the results are a blow for Starmer’s government, one thing is for sure; it’s a worse day at the office for Kemi Badenoch.
Labour have held the mayoralties of North Tyneside, West of England, and Doncaster, despite large swings to Reform in areas previously dominated by Labour. But having faced a night of bleak results, the day is set to be even bleaker for the Conservatives who are braced to lose former rural strongholds to the Lib Dems.
As per usual, it’s a catfight between Tory and Labour messaging. Labour is pointing to the collapse of the Conservative vote as the true story of the night, while CCHQ is spinning a different line — that serious questions are now being raised about Starmer’s leadership and depth of support.
With plenty of results yet to come, the jury is out on how damaging this is for Labour. So far, the verdict seems to be it could have been worse. But the real pain, once again, appears to be felt most keenly by the Conservatives — echoing the battering they took last July.
Not: Sally and Frances Leonard
Politics is avoided as a topic for conversation around many family dinner tables, but this will be hard for the Leonards, as Green Sally and her Tory mother Frances, face off for the Colney Heath and Marshalwick council seat in St Albans.
The pair laughed when they discovered they were both running — with Frances admitting she hadn’t checked the nomination papers closely enough. Despite their differing political views, the two speak daily, share a passion for the environment, and want the best for St Albans.
Frances Leonard is a veteran of local politics: a parish and district councillor, former Mayor of St Albans, and past chair of the local Conservative Association. But asked about the prospect of losing to her daughter, she joked: “I’ll never hear the end of it, will I?”
Both candidates face stiff competition from the incumbent Liberal Democrats, who have held a majority in the area since 2019 — so family peace may yet be preserved and they can commiserate each other on a fight well fought.