As a result, Labour lost seats to Reform at much the same rate as the Conservatives, a pattern that cost Labour control of the one council they were defending, Doncaster.
In contrast, Reform’s advance was more muted in wards that the Liberal Democrats and the Greens were defending. The party’s average share in these wards was just 22%. As a result, Reform had relatively little success in taking seats from these two parties.
Liberal Democrat and Green wards – unlike many Conservative and Labour ones – are heavily populated by university graduates.
Reform’s success on Thursday undoubtedly reflects the mood of an electorate that still has little faith in the Conservatives and which now is disappointed by Labour’s performance in office.
However, it is evidently proving most popular in a very distinctive part of Britain that overturned the political tables a decade ago in voting for Brexit – and which now has done so again.
John Curtice is Professor of Politics, University of Strathclyde, and Senior Fellow, National Centre for Social Research and ‘The UK in a Changing Europe’.
Analysis by Patrick English, Steve Fisher, Robert Ford, and Lotte Hargrave
Map produced by Libby Rogers, Muskeen Liddar, Jess Carr and Callum Thomson.
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