The Labour and Conservative vote in Nigel Farage’s constituency has collapsed as the Reform UK leader celebrates a victory.
The party’s candidate, Aimee Keteca, won a council by-election in Bentleys and Frating, Tendring this week.
Yesterday, Clacton’s MP hailed the result, a gain from the Conservatives, as “a big win for Reform”.
Mr Farage’s party attained 45.3% of the vote. The Liberal Democrats came second, gaining a hefty 16.8% to reach 34.4% of the ballots.
The Conservatives tanked and only got 17.1%, a 31.4% decrease. Labour acquired 3.2%, down 7.7%.
Reform has also won two seats at the Rochester East and Warren Wood by election for Medway Council.
The party’s Chairman Zia Yusuf announced on Friday that, of the six recent council by-elections, Reform won two and came second in two.
All were with vote shares of between 27 and 45%, he added, and all were Reform’s first outings in the seats.
Mr Yusuf then proclaimed: “Our campaign machine is starting to fire!”
It comes as Mr Farage’s party has been ranked higher than Labour and the Tories in national polls.
Results released by Find Out Now on Wednesday suggested that Reform UK was on 29% (+2), Labour 25% (+2) and the Conservatives on 18% (-3).
At the end of January, experts at Electoral Calculus stated that polling showed Reform UK overtaking the Conservatives in its monthly poll-of-polls for the first time.
It added: “Reform are two points ahead of the Conservatives, and two points behind Labour, and in what is close to a three-way tie in terms of vote share.
“Translated into seats, Labour would still be the largest party, but would be well short of a majority in the House of Commons.
“A Labour-Lib Dem coalition would be the most likely outcome at the moment, with a comfortable 52-seat majority.”
