Farage triumphs in regional elections | Luxembourg word

Nigel Farage was in Triumphal on Friday. « No question: in most parts of the country we are the most important opposition party from today, » he said. Farage’s right -wing party Reform UK had just won the Runcorn and Helsby lower house seat in a replacement election.

The constituency near Liverpool has so far been in a fixed Labor hand. But Farage’s party was able to grow by more than 20 percent, in the end the reform candidate Sarah Pochin managed to snap away the mandate with a wafer-thin majority of six votes.

« Seismic event » for the right -wing party

Reform now has five seats in the lower house. It was a « seismic » event, the British press judged. The party can reaffirm their claim to have become a serious force in British politics with their victory.

On Thursday, municipal elections took place in 23 English regions, as well as the elections for the mayoral offices in six major regions. On Friday afternoon, part of the votes was counted.

Nevertheless, it was already foreseeable that the right -wing party shone in these elections. The Reform UK candidate, the ex-goal Andrea Jenkyns, won the newly created post of Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire with comfortable 42 percent of the vote. The second-placed Labor candidate received only 26 percent.

The next bang came shortly after noon. Reform UK won most of the seats in the municipal parliament of the county of Staffordshire, north of Birmingham. So far, the Tories have had an overwhelming majority in this local council. Reform UK also conquered the municipal councils of Durham and Linconshire. In total, reform had won almost 400 mandates until Friday afternoon; The Tories had lost more than 340 seats at the time, Labor over 100.

The election day was deeply worrying for the government party. The loss of Runcorn is a heavy setback for Labor – and an indication that reform UK is also a danger for the left. Prime Minister Keir Strander described the defeat as « disappointing ». He would all the more determined to bring about the « change that people want to see », he promised.

Requirements for change of strategy at Labor

However, demands for a change of strategy have already become loud from their own ranks. « The government has to take a different way, » commented Brian Leishman on social media. « If we cannot improve people’s living standards, the next government will be a right -wing extremist. »

Other party colleagues gave concrete reasons for the defeat: « By reducing the disabled benefit and abolishing the heating subsidies for the winter months, she chased her off our voters, » said Richard Burgon, who listens to the left party wing.

In the past few months, surveys have shown that the reform voters represent legal conservative opinions on many social issues-for example in migration-but tend to left on economic issues. According to a new survey, there are more than two thirds for nationalization of energy and train, and they want stronger taxation of large corporations.

The big loser from Thursday is the Tory party. Most of the approximately 1,600 municipal council seats that were newly occupied have so far been in conservative hands. They were last elected in 2021 when the Tories rode under Boris Johnson on a wave of popularity. Accordingly, the potential for loss was very high. Tory boss Kemi Badenoch had already warned before a sobering day. The party is still in the process of recovering after the historical defeat from last July. « We can’t do that overnight. »

On Friday afternoon, when the heavy losses emerged, Badenoch said: « I am determined to recapture the public’s trust. » But with many Tory MPs, the doubts about Badenoch’s leadership qualities are likely to increase.