Nigel Farage admitted that Reform fell victim to Labour adopting his ‘get Keir Starmer out’ message in Makerfield.
The Reform leader said he was ‘disappointed’ as local plumber Robert Kenyon picked up 16,000 votes – 2,000 short of predictions.
And he issued a plea to supporters of Rupert Lowe’s hard-Right Restore Britain – asking them to ‘think again’ about backing his party in future.
Mr Kenyon, whose campaign was dogged by old social media posts, came second in the ballot with 35 per cent of the vote, finishing 20 percentage points behind former Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham.
Mr Burnham increased Labour’s vote share
To provide well-rounded coverage and a breadth of insight across various events, we rely on contributions from several staff writers, each bringing their own area of expertise to our publication.





