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. But no-one I know is voting Labour now. They are in really dire straits because they have neglected voters here for much too long.
Ouch. Echoing Farage’s support for a ‘British DOGE’ in county councils, Grimes remarked: ‘What we are hearing is that we are going to do very well and County Hall better be ready because we are going to get the auditors in and make sure every penny is being spent wisely.’ That’s them warned…
At the time of writing Reform UK has picked up over 200 council seats, well ahead of gains made by their opponents. While Farage’s lot narrowly missed out on winning the mayoralty in the West of England or Doncaster, Reform’s Runcorn result and the party’s success in the Greater Lincolnshire mayoral elections is confirmation of the strength of their ground campaign. And with six hours of election results to go, Reform could be in for many more victories yet. Stay tuned…
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