It’s been a stonking set of local elections for Reform, with a turquoise wave sweeping through country showing no signs of slowing down. The party has penetrated the backyards of wannabe prime ministers Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham and has swept to victory in the former Tory stronghold of Havering. Already Reform is up 250 seats as the Labour vote plummets. But, while Nigel Farage has plenty to drink to today, the Tories have been celebrating clinging on in Fareham council, part of which makes up Suella Braverman’s Westminster seat of Fareham and Waterlooville.
The former Conservative Home Secretary made the move to team Farage in January after months of defection rumours. She warned that Tory party is dead and done for, with only Reform capable of delivering proper right-wing policies for her constituents.
But not all of her constituency agreed. Fareham Borough Council, which encroaches on the MP’s patch, was one of the few glimmers of hope for Kemi Badenoch, remaining blue even as the Conservatives haemorrhaged votes across the county. The Tories lost just one town hall seat to Reform in Fareham.
The Tories built a similar redoubt on Westminster council, which in a pleasant semi-surprise for Badenoch was won back from the grasp of Labour. And in another cute win for the Tories, the party has held Bexley, a top Farage target in London.
Reform point out that, overall, in Braverman’s constituency, on the basis of the council results, she would win the seat with 34 per cent compared to Tories on 28, after her team helped clean up in the Waterlooville parts of her seat. ‘We worked hard and we won a majority throughout Fareham & Waterlooville,’ she said. ‘No-one needs to feel sorry for me. And throughout Hampshire, the Tory vote collapsed. We are celebrating!’
None of this, of course, is to say that the Conservatives should be popping the champagne corks. Local elections today belong to Farage. But these are not yet North Korean levels of support for Reform in the old Blue Wall seats, unlike their virtual clean sweep in Hartlepool and other Red Wall outposts.
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