To Durham, the mining heartland of the UK and a traditional working class county. Yet despite its rich history with the reds, being the first of England’s county councils to be controlled by Labour – with the party retaining that control for over a century – Nigel Farage’s Reform party is making gains. Now it transpires that ex-GB News presenter Darren Grimes has won a council seat in Durham – receiving a staggering 49.7 per cent of the vote. Talk about a decisive victory!
Grimes won the Annfield Plain ward in County Durham this afternoon as Farage’s party continues to pick up council seats across the country. Reform’s campaign claimed that ‘Durham was broken’ and sought to take advantage of growing disillusionment with Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour lot. Speaking ahead of the election, Grimes told the BBC that:
You could put a donkey with a red rosette on it at one point and it would win.

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