The insurgent anti-immigration party of Nigel Farage, Reforma UK, won a significant victory, although thin, the victory on Friday in a special parliamentary election in the northwest of England, notifying that Farage, a populist bond and a nearby ally of President Trump, is again a growing force in British politics.
The reform candidate, Sarah Pochin, won by only six votes about her opponent of the Labor Party, Karen Shore, in Runrorn and Helsby, taking advantage of what a safe seat for the work had until the head Berter Berter Berter Berter Berter Berter Berter.
On a high drama night, the result, the most adjusted in such an choice in modern history, was so close that the vote had to be told, delaying the declaration of the result for hours.
But the victory, in 12,645 votes to 12,639, was the beginning of what could be an impressive sample of strength by the reform in the elections of the Mostral and Local Council held on Thursday in England.
More than 1,600 municipal seats are at stake, and the surveys suggest that the reform could win at least 300 of them.
If the reform profits are confirmed as the ballots are counted through the free refrigerator, British policy would significantly deliver, potentially accelerating the country towards a more polarized multiparty system.
For Prime Minister Keir Starmer, it would be a setback in the first electoral test of his matches, since work swept power in July. The conservatives, who still lick their wounds after the stab of last summer, would be equally more vulnerable to a threat of the reform. And Mr. Farage could present a plausible case that the reform is emerging as a genuine rival for both main parties.
By itself, Runcorn’s defeat is a blow to Mr. Starmer. Labor won the seat in the last elections with a margin or 15,400 votes. But the conviction of Mr. Amesbury, in addition to a broader frustration of voters with the government, a great opening reform. Mrs. Pochin, a businesswoman who served in the local government, will join Mr. Farage as one of the five reform legislators with seats in Parliament.
His single -digit victory margin in a special election was unprecedented in modern British political history. The closest margin so far was in Berwick-Upon Tweed in 1973, when the liberal Democrats won by 57 votes.
“The people of Runcorn and Helsby have spoken,” Pochin said after the victory. “Enough is enough. Enough Tory fault. Enough work lies.” He joined Mr. Farage, who told reporters that “it is a great night for reform” and added “now we are the opposition party to this Labor Government.”
Peter Kyle, a labor cabinet minister, told the BBC that the result was “frustrating.” The circumstances of Mr. Amesbury’s resignation had made him a difficult choice, he said, but added that he understood “why a message like this would be sent.”
On Thursday in Runrorn, an industrial city or 61000 that is agitated on the Mersey River, west of Liverpool, the portents of a reform victory were in the air. People on the main street said the party had capitalized the anti -incumbent fervor, fed by dissatisfaction with the economy, as well as in immigration tensions, to gain support among voters with deep work roots.
In recent years, immigration has become a tense problem after a local hotel became home migrants, some of which cross the La Mancha channel in small boats, looking for asylum.
Although the Labor Government has announced plans to close the hotel, the Reform maintained a focus of attention and tried to claim credit for government pressure to act.
Terry Osborne, 49, business development manager, said the reform had tried to exploit the fact that some voters were not aware of the role of the government and that he was playing with his pre -existing prejudices about immigration. “They will listen to what they want to hear about immigration,” he said.
Mohamed Alosta, 36, owner of a business that described himself as a Labor defender for a long time, also criticized the management of the reform of the hotel theme.
But he said he would not vote for work this time because he was disenchanted by the policy of the main parties. Instead, he planned to vote for the Workers Party, a marginal party led by the left -wing brand, George Galloway.
In addition to the special elections, voters elected council members in 24 municipalities in parts of England, as well as six regional mayors: in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough; Doncaster; North Tyneside; The West of England; Hull and East Yorkshire; and Greater Lincolnshire.
In the first of the mayor’s results, work won in North Tyneside, western England and Doncaster, with an energetic reform and secondly in the three regions. In Greater Lincolnshire, the reform candidate, Andrea Jenkyns, a former conservative legislator, was victorious, winning 42 percent of the votes.
Much of what these local officials do is at mundane work, such as supervising garbage collection or planning. But the elections function as a referendum for the ruling party, which accumulated a parliamentary majority in most last year but with a thin 34 percent of the national votes.
Since then, surface work support has been exhausted by unpopular economic decisions such as stopping payments to retirees who had helped them deal with fuel costs, walking payroll taxes on companies and changing the inheritance tax rules for farmers.
“They almost seem to have proposed offending all groups,” said Robert Hayward, a conservative member of the House of Lores and the voting expert.
With the next general elections at years away, there is no threat to Mr. Starmer’s position. But a bad result could increase the pressure on the architect of the austere economic policies of the work, Rachel Reeves, the Treasury Chancellor.
Work struggles do not translate into dividends for conservatives. The party is preparing for a great loss of seats because the last time this set of seats of the local council was played, in 2021, it did it unusual well. The voters rewarded Boris Johnson, who was then prime minister, for a fast deployment or coronavirus vaccines.
