Full recount in Runcorn and Helsby
Josh Halliday
This is astonishing. There’s going to be a full recount in the Runcorn and Helsby byelection as Reform UK were ahead by just four votes.
The mood in the count centre is one of utter disbelief. If the recount returns the same result, Reform UK will have overturned one of Labour’s safest seats by just four votes.
Key events
Reform UK’s Nigel Farage is walking into the Runcorn and Helsby counting event.
Josh Halliday
Another twist in this unpredictable Runcorn and Helsby byelection!
We’ve just been told that the recount has almost been completed but it has thrown up a number of “doubtful” ballot papers that now need to be assessed by the candidates.
Earlier, we had been told that as few as four ballot papers had been deemed in doubt – before they were then accepted as valid Reform UK votes. Now it appears that more than four ballot papers are in doubt. Will keep you posted.
Robyn Vinter
The Doncaster mayoral race was very close at the top – not only between the top two candidates, Labour’s Ros Jones and Reform’s Alex Jones, but coming a close third was the Tories’ Nick Fletcher.
Fletcher is no stranger to politics, having served as the MP for Don Valley between 2019 and 2024, when he lost his seat at the last general election. He garnered a respectable 18,982 votes, compared with Alex Jones’s 23,107 and Ros Jones’s 23,805.
In fourth was Julie Buckley from the Green Party with 2,449 votes and fifth was Andrew Walmsley from the Yorkshire Party.
In her speech, Ros Jones said her priority was to the people of Doncaster. “I make this promise to the people of Doncaster, whether you voted for me or not, I will work for you every single day.”
Ros Jones has hit out at Sir Keir Starmer’s changes to the winter fuel allowance, hike to employers’ national insurance contributions and welfare reforms.
She told the BBC: “I wrote as soon as the winter fuel allowance was actually mooted, and I said it was wrong, and therefore I stepped in immediately and used our household support fund to ensure no-one in Doncaster went cold during the winter.”
The increase in national insurance was “hitting some of our smaller businesses” and the squeeze on the personal independence payment was leaving many people “worried”, Ms Jones said.
She added: “I think the results here tonight will demonstrate that they need to be listening to the man, woman and businesses on the street, and actually deliver for the people, with the people.”
Ben Quinn
A breakdown of the electoral dynamics in the West of England race.
Labour has won the West of England mayoralty in what could yet prove to be the best moment of the night for the governing party, which was expected to face stiff competition from the Green Party.
However, in a surprise, it was Reform UK which pipped the Greens to second place in an area which has significant number of left-leaning voters, particularly in the city of Bristol.
Reform UK’s candidate was Aaron Banks, a self-styled ‘Bad boy of Brexit’ and bankroller of one of the campaigners for Britain to leave the European Union, who 45,252 votes to the 51, 197 of Labour’s Helen Godwin.
Labour sources said that polling as recently as last week had suggested a decisive victory for the Greens.
“Not only has their vote fallen since 2021 but the Conservative vote has also plummeted by 12%,” they said, claiming that many voters had been appalled at talk of a Tory-Reform pact during the campaign.
Josh Halliday
What’s happening in Runcorn and Helsby?
No sign of white smoke at the Runcorn and Helsby byelection count. Quite a few of the also-ran candidates have left, wisely. Dozens of orange-jacketed counters are meticulously going through each one of the 32,740 votes, powered on by a fresh round of chocolate bars and, probably, a desperation for this to be over given it was supposed to wrap up two hours ago.
We’re in pretty uncharted territory here as it’s said to be the narrowest margin of victory of any UK parliamentary byelection, although that hasn’t been verified.
Whatever the result, it’s certainly one of the most dramatic contests of recent times.
Another win for Labour in Doncaster
Robyn Vinter
The Doncaster mayoral results are in!
Labour’s Ros Jones has won by a margin of less than 700 votes. The turnout was 33%.
Huge cheers from the gathered Labour supporters, who are singing “There’s only one Ros Jones!”
West of England mayoral race called for Labour
A win for Labour, with the party’s Helen Godwin securing a win in the West of England mayoral race. Godwin defeated Reform’s Arron Banks, who came second.
The latest from Doncaster, with results imminent
Robyn Vinter
In Doncaster, Reform’s candidate Alex Jones said it was still “too early to say” whether he would win, with 10 minutes to go until declaration.
“It’s looking good,” he added. “Even if we run them a close second, it shows our message is getting through to the populace.”
Has he got big ideas for if he gets in? “Yeah a few. You’ll find out.”
The result of the Greater Lincolnshire mayoral race – where Reform UK are bullish about their prospects of winning – is now not expected for at least another hour and a half.
One of the largest districts where counting is taking place is said to have only started counting, while elections for local councillors in those areas has also slowed things down.
However, there was an alarm call for Labour in one of the other districts, North East Lincolnshire, which has already come through with its results and includes the towns of Grimsby and Cleethorpes.
In that district, Reform’s Andrea Jenkyns took 12523 votes, followed by Labour’s Jason Stockwood (6419) and Rob Waltham (6239). Labour’s performance was being watched on account of expectations that Stockwood, a tech investor and former chair of Grimsby Town Football Club, could count on some kind of base there.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has posted on X, saying the party has won in Runcorn and Helsby.
“Reform UK have won the Runcorn & Helsby by-election by 4 votes! Labour have demanded a recount. We are very confident we have won.”
Votes are currently being recounted in Runcorn and Helsby, with the results expected soon.
Reform UK looked on course to take control of Staffordshire County Council, after taking 24 of the 30 seats to be counted overnight, with Conservatives winning the other six, PA reports.
It means when counting resumes later on Friday, Reform need to win just eight more seats, which would give Nigel Farage’s party a majority on the council which has 62 seats.
Conservative council leader Alan White lost his seat to Reform in one of the first results of the night. His party previously controlled the council with 53 seats, with Labour holding five and independents four.
The four district and borough areas returning results overnight were Lichfield, Newcastle, South Staffordshire and Tamworth, and ballots will be counted later on Friday in the Cannock Chase, East Staffordshire, Stafford and Staffordshire Moorlands areas.
The Conservatives have controlled the county council since winning in 2009, claiming elections in 2013, 2017 and 2021.
Josh Halliday
Throughout our reporting in Runcorn and Helsby in recent months we encountered voters of all persuasions who said they simply either wouldn’t vote, or would do so very reluctantly.
This potential result – splitting Labour and Reform UK by just four votes – shows that every vote truly does count.
If the result stands – and we expect a formal declaration in about an hour – it would be hand Reform UK one of the narrowest parliamentary majorities in recent UK political history.
Since World War Two, two constituencies have been won by just two votes each, according to the BBC – once by the Liberal Democrats in 1997 and another by the Scottish National Party in 2017.
Robyn Vinter
Update from Doncaster:
Votes are still being counted in Doncaster, where it is impossible to tell which way things will go. Labour’s Ros Jones, in a burgundy suit, said she was still hopeful but if she didn’t win she would accept the electorate’s decision.
“That’s how democracy works,” she said.
She has been walking around the floor, with lots of people stopping to speak to her.
Meanwhile, no sign of Reform’s candidate Alex Jones. He was visibly nervous speaking to party members at a Reform event when he shared a stage with Nigel Farage a couple of weeks ago, and this evening some are joking that he’s worried he might actually win.
Full recount in Runcorn and Helsby
Josh Halliday
This is astonishing. There’s going to be a full recount in the Runcorn and Helsby byelection as Reform UK were ahead by just four votes.
The mood in the count centre is one of utter disbelief. If the recount returns the same result, Reform UK will have overturned one of Labour’s safest seats by just four votes.
Drama in Runcorn:
Candidates in the key Runcorn and Helsby byelection are being gathered because “a couple of doubtful votes” need to be checked, a senior council official has said.
That’s an indication of how close this contest will be. The parties are being given provisional results, before Labour and Reform UK decide whether to call a full recount.
That’s the territory we’re in.
More in from North Lincolnshire:
Reform UK candidate Dame Andrea Jenkyns was ahead after the first declaration in the contest to become the first North Lincolnshire mayor.
Boston Borough Council, one of the nine authorities that make up the mayoral area, said Dame Andrea had 7,285 votes, ahead of Conservatives (2,695), Lincolnshire Independents (1,193), Labour (897), Green (774) and Liberal Democrat (513).
Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice earlier said the party was “absolutely smashing it” in the contest, where Dame Andrea – a former Tory minister – is on course to win.
In the 2016 referendum, 75.6% of people in Boston voted to leave the EU – the highest proportion in the UK.
Ben Quinn
The tensions between Andrea Jenkyns, Reform UK’s candidate for the Greater Lincolnshire mayoralty, and her old Conservative colleagues were on display following her arrival at the county centre in Grimsby.
After arriving at the count centre, she was seen to embrace her Labour rival, Jason Stockwood, the tech investor and former chair of Grimsby Town Football Club, while she kept her distance from the Conservative candidate, Rob Waltham.
Jenkyns, who has been criticised by Waltham for not living in the area and at one stage faced accusations she was not eligible to stand, told the Guardian: “The figures are looking good and while a lot has yet to come hopefully it’s going to go my way.”
The former Conservative MP and minister said the results tonight were a key staging post in Reform’s project to win the next general election.
“Reform getting into places of power for the first time and we have to show we can deliver. We are going to be under scrutiny and if we can show what we can do then it will be a blueprint for government,” she added.
Jenkyns has promised “Doge Lincolnshire” to cut government waste – a reference to Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” in the US – and used the slogan “No to net zero madness” in her campaign.
Runcorn and Helsby: some ballot papers recounted
Josh Halliday
The battle for the Runcorn and Helsby by-election has come down to “within a hundred votes,” according to candidates briefed by local officials. A number of the ballot papers are being recounted because it’s so close. It’s “incredibly tight,” the acting returning officer told the candidates.
This is quite a dramatic turn of events after Nigel Farage was planning to make a grand entrance. The Reform UK leader is believed to be waiting in a car outside the count centre, presumably ready to make an appearance if his party wins.
