Nigel Farage has said the Tories will “never recover” and Reform UK has “supplanted” them as the opposition to Labour after his party made sweeping gains in local elections. Both Sir Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch are under pressure to reverse their parties’ fortunes after Reform picked up 10 councils and more than 600 seats in Thursday’s poll.

Reform’s Sarah Pochin was declared winner of the seat of Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by six votes after a recount. Leader of Reform Nigel Farage told journalists that the victory represented a “loss of confidence” in the governing Labour Party.