Parts of England vote in local elections, with Farage's Reform UK seeking big gains

LONDON -- Voters in many areas of England go to the polls Thursday in local elections that provide a test of feeling about Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s center-left Labour government, 10 months after it was elected in a landslide.

Both Labour and the main opposition Conservative Party are bracing for losses in the midterm poll. The hard-right Reform UK led by Nigel Farage is fielding more candidates than any other party and hopes to make major gains in the elections for about 1,600 seats on 23 local councils, six mayoralties and one seat in Parliament.

Reform got about 14% of the vote in last year’s national election and holds just four of the 650 seats in the House of Commons. But polls now suggest its support equals or surpasses that of Labour and the Conservatives, and it hopes to displace the Conservatives as the country’s main party on the right before the next national election, due by 2029.

“Tomorrow is the day that two-party politics in England dies for good,” Farage told supporters at a rally on Wednesday evening.




https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/parts-england-vote-local-elections-farages-reform-uk-121347543