Farage claims Reform UK local election gains ‘beginning of the end’ for Tories

Hard-right party wins byelection with 17-point swing from Labour and adds more than 500 council seats

• Local elections: full mayoral and council results

Nigel Farage claimed he had broken the grip of Britain's two main political parties as Reform UK gained an MP and swept to a string of victories in England's local elections, making deep inroads into Labour and Conservative heartlands.

On a sobering day for Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch that brought immediate recriminations, Reform took hundreds of councillors from the struggling Tories and won the Runcorn and Helsby byelection by just six votes ahead of Labour.