They won by just 6 votes after a recount
Reform UK’s Sarah Pochin has narrowly won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election, taking the seat from Labour by just six votes — the smallest majority in modern by-election history.
The result marks a significant upset, with Nigel Farage’s party overturning a 14,696-vote Labour majority and delivering a stark warning to Keir Starmer in the first by-election since his government came to power.
The by-election was triggered when former Labour MP Mike Amesbury stood down after he was convicted for assaulting a constituent.
Pochin secured 12,645 votes, just ahead of Labour’s Karen Shore, who received 12,639. The Conservative candidate came third with 2,341 votes, followed by the Greens with 2,314 and the Liberal Democrats with 942.
BBC chief political correspondent Henry Zeffman reported that a “disconsolate Labour campaigner” told him: “On every door it was the same story — winter fuel and PIP.”
Following the result, Farage claimed: “We now are the opposition party in the UK to Labour, and the Tories are a waste of space.”
The result has prompted warnings from progressives that by failing to offer ‘real change’, the Labour government risks handing over the country to the far-right.
Commenting on the Runcorn and Helsby by-election result, a Labour Party spokesperson said: “By-elections are always difficult for the party in government and the events which led to this one being called made it even harder. Voters are still rightly furious with the state of the country after 14 years of failure and clearly expect the government to move faster with the Plan for Change.”
The spokesperson added: “While Labour has suffered an extremely narrow defeat, the shock is that the Conservative vote has collapsed. Moderate voters are clearly appalled by the talk of a Tory-Reform pact.
“There are encouraging signs that our Plan for Change is working – NHS waiting lists, inflation and interest rates down with wages up – but we will go further and faster to deliver change with relentless focus on putting money back into people’s pockets.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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