Watch: Reform celebrate Runcorn victory

It was a long, tense night in Runcorn and Helsby as constituents and candidates awaited the results of their parliamentary by-election. Initially Labour looked to have come out on top, before reporters were informed that Reform UK were four points ahead of Sir Keir Starmer’s army. ‘Doubtful’ votes prompted a recount – and almost eight hours after journalists first appeared at the count centre, the final results came in: Nigel Farage’s Reform party won the Labour safe seat from the reds by just six votes. Talk about a knife edge…

Not that the result was necessarily surprising to Farage, who had taken to Twitter earlier in the night to proclaim victory in the by-election – despite the recount taking place – noting that: ‘Labour have demanded a recount. We are very confident we have won.’ Rumours circulated that the party leader had spent the night sitting in the car park awaiting to hear whether his candidate had clinched the win before he arrived in the hall just before 6 a.m.