LONDON, May 2. /TASS/. The candidate of the right-populist Reform UK party Sarah Pochin has won a mandate to the House of Commons, the lower house of the British Parliament, according to the results of the by-election held on May 1 in the Runcorn and Helsby constituency in the northwest of England.
Pochin secured 12,645 votes, defeating her main rival, the candidate from the ruling Labor Party, Karen Shore. Political analysts note that this outcome may prove rather painful for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, as the constituency had long been considered a Labor stronghold, traditionally delivering the party a seat in the Commons.
Labor’s past dominance was evident in last July’s results, when the party’s then-candidate Mike Amesbury won nearly 53% of the vote, enjoying a lead of 22,400 over his nearest competitor. However, this March, Amesbury was compelled to resign following his involvement in a pub brawl. He admitted that on the day of the October incident, he had consumed six or seven pints of beer on an empty stomach and responded to criticism from a passerby by hitting him so hard he knocked him to the ground. Amesbury was sentenced to 10 weeks in prison, making a by-election unavoidable.
Analysts have pointed out that the prime minister never once appeared in the constituency during the campaign to support his party’s candidate - a move that typically signals low expectations from the party’s leadership.
Reform UK, founded by prominent Brexit supporter Nigel Farage, has now secured its fifth seat in the 650-member House of Commons.
Meanwhile, vote counting continues in the regional elections held on May 1. A total of 1,600 seats in 23 local government bodies across England, including county councils, unitary authorities and city offices, are up for grabs. According to polls, Reform UK stands a fair chance of picking up several hundred positions, capitalising on waning support for the Conservative Party.