Reform UK makes gains as Tory losses mount in double by-election drubbing

Right-wing challenger party Reform UK has secured its best by-election results yet as Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg bemoaned his party’s performance and warned they should “learn from” the drubbing.

Richard Tice’s party scored double-digit shares of the vote in both Wellingborough and Kingswood overnight, as the party leader called it a “defining moment” that showed Reform to be a “significant force now in British politics and that people have got to take us seriously”.

The Conservatives faced two crushing by-election results overnight, as Labour overturned huge Tory majorities in Kingswood and Wellingborough. In both constituencies, Reform took the third largest vote share.

In the Kingswood contest, Damien Egan overturned an 11,000 Tory majority, winning with a majority of 2,501 votes.

The Wellingborough by-election saw disgraced former Conservative MP Peter Bone replaced with Labour’s Gen Kitchen, who secured 13,844 votes to beat the Tories’ by more than 6,000.

The votes came just hours after the country was officially plunged into a technical recession, as the country’s economy contracted for the fourth quarter in a row.

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Mr Tice told the Telegraph: “We’re delighted, we’re the party on the up and it’s quite clear that more and more people are looking for something different.”

Reform had been tipped to do well in last October’s by-election in Tamworth, but the party only managed to secure 5.4 per cent of the vote – leading pollsters to speculate that Reform’s support had been over inflated.

The party also failed to perform in Mid Bedfordshire on the same day, when it only achieved a 3.7 per cent vote share.

But today’s successes have emboldened Reform, and will bolster those on the right of the Conservative party who are calling for the prime minister to take a tougher approach to immigration, lower taxation and roll-back on net-zero.

In Kingswood, Reform’s took 10.4 per cent of the vote – which was larger than the Labour majority - leading Conservative MPs to suggest that their party could need to work harder to secure Reform voters.

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Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, former business secretary, said the Conservative Party needed to “learn from the result”.

He said: “I think we should learn from this result and look at what happened with the Reform Party vote. Conservative Party votes are most likely to come from people who stay at home or who voted Reform.

“How do we win them back to the Tory family? People who share many views and values with us. By delivering things they believe in and that means lower taxation, taking more of the advantages of Brexit, with more of the removal of EU retained law, it means doing less on the green issue that is making people cold and poor, and helping revitalise our economy.”

But others point out that even if Reform were not on the ballot paper, there is no assurance that those votes would have been consumed by the Conservatives.

In Wellingborough, despite Reform polling at 13 per cent of the vote share, their vote would not have been enough to overturn the Labour majority of 6,436 votes.

Professor Sir John Curtice, the leading pollster, said Reform’s successes would be a major source of concern for the Tories.

He told the BBC: “Reform UK have now entered the electoral battle in a serious way and that potentially adds to the Conservatives’ difficulties so far as their chances of hanging on to seats at the next general election.

Sir Jacob also called on Reform and the Conservatives to come together to keep Labour out of government.

He told GB News: “The challenge for Conservatives and conservatism is to reunite the Right-wing of politics. Because the way we let Keir Starmer in by the back door of Downing Street is if the two parties which share so many things in common are divided on election day.”

Mr Tice has repeatedly ruled out any kind of pact with the Tories ahead of the election.

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The conservative party chairman Richard Holden has now said Reform UK want to put Sir Keir Starmer “into Downing Street”.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Mr Holden said: “Their ambition is to block Conservatives winning seats and therefore put Keir Starmer into Downing Street.

“They’ve made it very clear, you’ve read out that statement from them, that’s what Reform UK want to do, they want to see Keir Starmer in Downing Street and not have a Conservative government.”

He added: “Reform aren’t challenging realistically for seats. This general elections is going to be a battle between the Conservatives and the Labour Party.

“All Reform are going to do, as they’ve said themselves, is help put Keir Starmer and Labour into Downing Street.”