Reform UK is “a real threat” to Labour and is being treated as a “serious opposition force” after the party’s successes in local elections, Wes Streeting has said. Labour and the Conservatives are under pressure to reverse their parties’ fortunes after Reform picked up 10 councils and more than 600 seats in Thursday’s polls.

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Nigel Farage's Reform UK has made big gains in English local elections, cementing it as a prime challenger to Britain's traditional main parties. It won 677 of around 1,600 seats contested on Thursday across a clutch of mainly Tory-held councils last contested in 2021.

Six votes is not much of a majority, but it was enough for Mr Farage’s Reform UK to beat Labour in a by-election for Runcorn and Helsby, a seat just outside Liverpool. What was once one of the safest Labour seats in the country fell to Mr Farage’s party,

With a thumping success in local elections this week, the hard-right Reform UK party has loosened Britain's two-party stranglehold and is already eyeing Downing Street.