Local elections reaction

Yorkshire Post

Reaction to the local elections results from Ralph Blackburn, Westminster Correspondent, the Yorkshire Post.

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00:00Hello, Rafe Blackburn, the Yorkshire Post's Westminster correspondent,

00:04reflecting on what has been a pretty seismic set of local and regional elections

00:10going on overnight and into today.

00:14First of all, picking up the parliamentary by-election in Runcorn.

00:20Reform UK won that by just six votes, beating Labour.

00:25It was previously one of Labour's biggest majorities in the country.

00:32And Nigel Farage's party also won the Greater Lincolnshire Metro Mayor

00:39with former Leeds MP Andrea Jenkins winning there.

00:45She beat her Tory competitor by 40,000 votes.

00:49That is a big, big win.

00:52So a very good night for reform.

00:55And it could get better as the day goes on.

00:58Not great for Labour, but not as bad as it could have been.

01:03Labour won in Doncaster with Ros Jones, the long-serving mayor,

01:09winning there by around 700 votes.

01:12That's a big reduction in her majority.

01:15Now, she gave a really fascinating interview after the election where she really said that

01:23Keir Starmer needs to listen to what people are saying in this election.

01:27She mentioned the winter fuel payment cut, which has been coming up a lot on the doorstep.

01:33She also mentioned welfare reforms, national insurance contribution increases.

01:37She said all of these things were hitting people in Doncaster.

01:41And she basically urged the Prime Minister to listen to the message this election was sending.

01:47As you know, in Doncaster reform, we're only around 700 votes behind.

01:51And then the Tories, with Nick Fletcher, not that far behind that.

01:54So Labour really winning in their heartlands by the skin of their teeth.

01:59And when speaking to South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard, he said what Labour needs to focus on

02:06to take on the threat of reform is about delivery.

02:09He said in South Yorkshire, there's Labour MPs.

02:12He's the Labour mayor.

02:13There's a Labour mayor in Doncaster.

02:15There's really no excuses for them not to deliver.

02:18And they will hope that if they are able to reopen Doncaster-Sheffield Airport next year,

02:24that that will be a sign of that.

02:26But both he and Ros Jones were quite clear that Labour need to step up the delivery

02:32if they're able to show that there's going to be change and they're going to win over voters.

02:37Now, the real losers of last night are the Conservatives,

02:41obviously losing significantly in Greater Lincolnshire.

02:46and other councils across the country.

02:51It's obviously coming from a high watermark in 2021,

02:54where they had one of their best ever results after Boris Johnson rolled out the vaccine.

03:00But there's already been discussions from losing candidates about whether,

03:04you know, they need to come forward with some sort of pact or agreement with reform.

03:08Nick Fletcher, the Conservative candidate for the mayor of Doncaster,

03:10made the point that right-wing parties won, you know,

03:14about two-thirds of the vote in Doncaster, yeah, obviously Labour, Labour have won that.

03:18So he says, you know, unless there's some sort of agreement or pact or merger or something with reform,

03:25then Labour are going to continue to be able to win in this way.

03:29Obviously, not all of those voters that vote for reform came from the Conservatives.

03:33There's certainly a lot that came over from Labour.

03:35But it's interesting, not that long after Kemi-Brunner ruled out any sort of pact,

03:40already Conservatives are kind of bringing this up,

03:42and that's going to become more and more regular ahead of the next election.

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