Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
LAST UPDATE | 2 May
UK PRIME MINISTER Keir Starmer conceded Labour’s loss to Reform UK in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election was “disappointing,” but insisted he was determined to delivering change faster.
Starmer told voters his party “get it” but defended what he claimed were the government’s “tough but right” decisions.
New MP Sarah Pochin took the Runcorn and Helsby seat by just six votes – a historically slim margin.
The narrow victory saw Reform taking a constituency that Labour won with a majority of almost 14,700 less than 12 months ago.
In Greater Lincolnshire, Reform elected its first mayor ever. Counting in local elections continues across England.
Farage said of the victories: “For the movement, for the party, it’s a very, very big moment indeed, absolutely, no question, and it’s happening right across England.”
He said it was a sign that Prime Minister Starmer had “alienated so much of his traditional base, it’s just extraordinary”.
Speaking to the PA news agency last night, Farage said there was “no question” that Reform is now “the main opposition party to this government”.
Nigel Farage to @joncraig - looking absolutely thrilled to win “Labour heartland” of Runcorn -
— Sophy Ridge (@SophyRidgeSky) May 2, 2025
He says this ends the “media narrative” Reform is only a problem for the Tories
And he’s brutal when Jon asks his message to Kemi Badenoch: “Please stay!”
pic.twitter.com/zy7wkmdV6D
Speaking to reporters during a visit to Bedfordshire following the result today, Starmer said:
What I want to say is, my response is we get it.
“We were elected in last year to bring about change.”
He said that his party has “started that work”, such as bringing in measures to cut NHS waiting lists, adding: “I am determined that we will go further and faster on the change that people want to see.”
Starmer was asked by reporters whether he would reconsider unpopular policy changes, such as means-testing the winter fuel payment, amid murmurs of backbench discontent in the wake of the results.
“The reason that we took the tough but right decisions in the budget was because we inherited a broken economy,” he told Sky News.
“Maybe other prime ministers would have walked past that, pretended it wasn’t there… I took the choice to make sure our economy was stable.”
Former Conservative minister Dame Andrea Jenkyns was elected mayor in Greater Lincolnshire, where she won with a majority of almost 40,000 over her former party.
Jenkyns was accused of breaking election rules by standing despite not living in the area – a complaint that was dismissed.
She stormed out of a Sky News interview this morning after she was questioned about why, during her victory speech, she pointed out a fellow candidate’s accent.
The first-ever mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, Reform's Dame Andrea Jenkins, refuses to answer questions from Sky's @serenabarksing on her comments about a fellow mayoral candidate's South African accent.https://t.co/TC2ROCL7wW
— Sky News (@SkyNews) May 2, 2025
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/u2QtSwlpHq
Reform also beat the Conservatives to take control of Staffordshire County Council.
In all, Farage’s party gained more than 600 seats and took control of 10 local authorities in today’s local elections.
The full result across all 23 councils shows Reform has won a total of 677 councillors, up 648 on its tally before polling day; the Conservatives have won 319, down 635; the Lib Dems have won 370, up 146; Labour has won 98, down 198; the Greens have 79, up 41; and independent candidates have 89, down 95.
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said the results showed the Lib Dems were now “the party of middle England”.
I’ve a better idea. Let’s stay at home pull the curtains and never utter a word to anyone ever again.
@liam mc laughlin: haha … have you heard the latest one….” Unconscious bias” training????
@Frank Dubogovik: Lol, yeah we had to do some unconscious bias training some months ago at work. What a load of tosh. It was basically a computer based training about not judging a book by it’s cover.
@Frank Dubogovik: oh dear I’m sure I’ll be sent to it soon.
@liam mc laughlin: Are you saying you don’t suffer from any conscious or unconscious biases?
I met my partner at work. We informed our boss only once things were becoming serious – an awkward conversation that I personally felt wasn’t needed as it was no one else’s business what we did when we left the building – we work in totally different sections so lunch is really the only time we see each other so our work wasn’t effected – my boss began treating me differently. It came to a head when I was asked to leave a meeting I had called and was chairing, in front of several times colleagues who were unaware of the relationship because we would be discussing a team that my partner was involved in. I felt like my entire professionalism was called into question and my personal life was aired for all to hear . I was totally embarrassed
@Clare Bear: are you for real
@Clare Bear: I hope we dont go down the road of US style “morals clauses” that allow bosses to sack people for their private lives.
@Clare Bear: It’s called a conflict of interest.
Employers don’t want workers to be close to eachother because they are more likely to stand up for eachother and unionise. There is nothing wrong with falling in love with someone in work. It happens all the time and is completely natural.
@SC: If that was true then why are employers only talking about bringing in these policies now and not 20 years ago when unions were more powerful. The real reason employers don’t want relationships at work is because of the legal actions taken against employers for sexual harassment. If the employer has a policy forbidding relationships then the employee can be sacked more easily and thus avoiding the company being sued.
@SC: that’s just nonesense!
Does anyone else think that this #metoo rubbish has started to go too far? Yes there are instances of people abusing their power over others and this totally wrong, there are those who allow themselves to be abused through their own weakness in the hope of gaining an advantage and when it fails call foul and play at being a victim, when in actual fact they should not have allowed themselves get into the situation in the first place. There is a word, it is NO and after that any person who has any form of violence perpetrated against them should notify law enforcement
@Kevin50: power !!!!!
What a lot of drivel and more of the micro managing of peoples lives so characteristic of the modern nanny state. The obvious next step is we should prevent people talking in case they might get to like each and want a relationship. The fact that “Google do not have an explicit rule but do discourage relationships with an imbalance of power” should be as far as any policy should go. The fact that people should “tell their stories and share their pain on social media” as the ridiculous Metoo movement encouraged them tells us all we need to know about Stephanie Regan.
There are many reasons for tension in the workplace: competition between ambitious young people, promotion on grounds of “gender balance” rather than on merit; are there to be rules around these too or is the last exempt because it is sacred? There isnt rhyme or reason to this tripe.
I’m one of three sisters and we all met our now husbands at work, years ago and all still together…what a crock of s€€t!
Or we could just act like adults and professionals at the workplace
Are there no depths to which the politically correct twitterati will stoop in order to wield their power and interference in human relationships. These puritanical zealots will stoop to extraordinary depths to interfere in relationships between staff. These relationships copy real life outside work . some work out, some don’t. But the Upstairs-downstairs approach (as proposed by Google (no surprise) is disgraceful. I’m outraged, so there.
Ridiculous. Work can be a great place to meet someone special.
@Slim Shady: even for undertakers?
@Frank Dubogovik: Yes if they are down with that….
We should be wary about accepting new fangled ideas from Hollywood. Much of the MeToo movement over there is a reaction to the scandals in Hollywood. I dont think there is anything on the same scale in Irish workplaces. The Magdalene launderies and Industrial schools are in the past. Also around one third of couples meet in the workplace. If we go down the road of trying to micro-manage relationships we are overturning legitimate bodily autonomy.
That said its important to protect workers from employer sexual harrassment. But that is not the same as workplace peers who are at equal levels of power. Leave them alone.
@Pragmatist2018: I agree. I’ve never really dated anyone in work but saw many others get together and even break up with no harm done.
At least in Catholic Ireland if you were naughty you could go to confession and lie to the priest and clear the slate. In this new liberal dystopia there’s no room to manoeuvre, one slip of the tongue and the chasm of ignominy awaits, there’s no chance of redemption, that’s it, you’re an outcast until the day you die.
The noose tightens slowly day by day.
I’ve been living these rules all my working life. Keep business and social separate. Don’t bring it home!
Lots of people meet their partners at work, fraternisation shouldn’t be compared to workplace harass
@Lisa Saputo: *workplace harassment. Stupid thing posted the comment before I was finished.
A handy and funny guide to today’s workplace can be found here:
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-44630735
@Ruairi Gagarin: Thanks, that was straightforward and funny.
Bull shit
Ye really what’s needed , people skills not needed
Children need to be told how to play together once they start to misbehave.
have your say