Reform UK is on course for a landmark haul of seats in the 2026 local elections, with party chairman David Bull telling the BBC the party’s ascent had been “meteoric.”
Bull said voters on the doorstep were declaring “two party politics are dead” and that both Labour and the Conservatives were “in trouble.”
He told the BBC that anything between 800 and 900 English seats would constitute a “great night,” with 1,000 representing “a measure of success.”
He insisted the vote — local in name only — should be read as “a referendum on the Labour Party.”
At the time of writing Sky News reported 11 seats for Reform, against 11 losses for Labour including in former bastions such as Chorley, and Runcorn and Helsby indicating the northern Red Wall was indeed falling to Nigel Farage‘s party.
The losses are already mounting — a Labour insider conceded to the BBC that Tameside, a council the party has controlled without interruption since 1979, had fallen.
A Reform source declared to the Sun on Sunday: “The Red Wall is crumbling and turning Reform tonight.”
How are the Conservatives faring in the 2026 local elections?
On the Conservative benches, shadow transport secretary Richard Holden conceded “significant losses” were inevitable, without being drawn on specific numbers.
He struck a more optimistic note on Badenoch’s personal ratings, saying she was registering “positive” feedback from voters.