Reform WINS by a landslide in Labour heartland as voters punish Starmer with staggering 49% drop in vote share

Reform UK scored a huge electoral win deep in Labour’s strongest heartland in the UK last night.

Voters in the Trevethin & Penygarn council ward in Torfaen, South Wales, abandoned the habit of several lifetimes by ditching Labour for Nigel Farage’s party in an unprecedented swing.

Farage’s party scooped 47 per cent of the vote, but more impressive than that was the size of the collapse in socialist support.

Labour mustered just 26 per cent of the vote as their support crumbled by whopping 49.2 per cent.

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The result is all the more eye-opening when considering the voting habits of Torfaen residents. The last time Trevethin & Penygarn voted, Labour was returned with 76 per cent of the vote.

In the wider Westminster constituency, Torfaen has voted red since it was formed in 1983, most recently returning Nick Thomas-Symonds with a 7,322-vote majority.

The South Wales Valleys, along with Wales as a whole, has voted in a Labour majority for last 28 consecutive General Elections, an extraordinary period of dominance stretching back to 1910.

The Senedd, Wales’ devolved parliament, has been ruled by Labour since its formation in 1999.

But as this result shows, Reform appears to be shattering the status quo in Labour’s safest of strongholds.

Starmer’s party also lost the Warwick All Saints and Woodloes by election (Warwick) last night, with their vote share dropping 24.7 per cent.

The Greens and Reform were both up 21 per cent, but it was the environmental party that ended up taking the ward.

Starmer’s party did manage to defend the Burnt Oak ward in northwest London where a drop of 18.2 per cent in vote share was still enough to win. Reform came third.

Labour also won the Kirkintilloch East & North & Twechar ward in East Dunbartonshire in a three horse race with the Lib Dems and SNP.

In the Manor ward of Stevenage, the Liberal Democrats defended their safe majority with ease, though Reform pushed Labour and the Tories into third and fourth.

One other election happened in Bransgore, Burley, Sopley & Ringwood East ward in the New Forest that is yet to declare.

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On Tuesday, the two establishment parties were battered in an election in the Prendergast ward of Haverfordwest (Pembrokeshire), with Labour’s vote share dropping 32 per cent and the Tories’ 37 per cent as an independent triumphed.

The result means Labour has suffered a net loss of 32 councillors since the July General Election as voters desert Starmer for unpopular decisions on winter fuel, farm tax and Chagos.

The Conservatives are up 23 seats, while Reform are up 11, not counting defections. The Lib Dems have held steady on 35 seats (no gain or loss).

It comes after Reform was handed its largest lead in a national poll ever yesterday by pollsters FindOutNow.

The research put Reform on 29 per cent, six points ahead of Labour on 23 per cent and eight ahead of the Conservatives on 21 per cent.

FindOutNow has consistently given Reform a higher lead than any other polling company, however.

But two other pollsters, YouGov and MoreInCommon, have given Farage’s party a lead, but only of a point or two.

Electoral Calculus conducted a ‘mega poll’ this week which saw the Tories, Labour and Reform tie on about 145 seats each if a General Election was held tomorrow, suggesting Britain’s political landscape may well now be a three-party system.