Lee Anderson becomes first elected Reform MP as Farage hails ‘huge’ result

Mr Anderson has been the party’s only MP since he defected from the Conservatives.

But his election in Ashfield as a Reform candidate marks the first time the party, which was formed in 2018, has managed to secure an MP at the ballot box.

The party had an early boost in several constituencies where they took second place, pushing the Tories into third.

An exit poll for the BBC, Sky and ITV predicted that the party could win 13 seats – higher than predictions by most polls.

However, as results started to roll in, two of those went to Labour.

The exit poll showed that Barnsley North had a 99% chance of being won by Robert Lomas but in reality he was around 8,000 votes short and Labour held the seat.

Reform dropped its support for Mr Lomas as a candidate over alleged racist comments but he still appeared as a Reform candidate on the ballot.

The poll put Hartlepool as a 91% chance of a Reform win but that seat also went to Labour.

Speaking after his victory in Ashfield, Mr Anderson told reporters he was “delighted but not surprised” about his win.

“This is the capital of common sense, by the way – people speak their mind in this area and they’ve had enough of the two mainstream parties.

“The Reform Party, people like myself, Richard (Tice) and Nigel speak the same language, in a different accent obviously, we speak the same language as the great people of Ashfield.

“So when this gig came up and I was asked to stand again for the Reform Party, it was a no brainer to be honest with you.”

Mr Farage had earlier declined to say what number of MPs Reform would classify as a win.

On a video posted to X, he said: “It’s midnight, there are two results in from the north east of England that put Reform on 30% of the vote, that is way more than any possible prediction or projection. It is almost unbelievable.

“And what does it mean? It means we’re going to win seats, many, many seats I think right now across the country.”

He added: “This is going to be six million votes plus. This folks is huge.”

The clip was captioned: “The revolt against the establishment is under way.”

In Houghton and Sunderland South, Reform UK candidate Sam Woods-Brass received 11,668 votes to Conservative candidate Chris Burnicle’s 5,514.

Labour’s shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson won the constituency with 18,837 votes, achieving just over 47% of the vote share and a majority of 7,169.

Reform saw similar success in the second result of the night, coming in second place in Blyth and Ashington with 10,857 votes, as Labour secured 20,030 votes and the Tories came third with 6,121 votes.

It has been said that Reform’s wide but thin support would not facilitate their success in a first-past-the-post system and Mr Farage has been vocal about the need for changes to the electoral system.

So, the early successes will bolster Reform’s confidence as Mr Farage had previously said this election was only the “tip of the iceberg” for the start-up party as they build to bigger success in 2029.

Mr Farage has tried and failed to get elected to Parliament seven times in the past, and if polls are correct it may be the eighth time lucky.

The exit poll by Ipsos UK for Sky News, the BBC and ITV News, said Reform UK have a likelihood of 99%-plus that Mr Farage will win the seat in Clacton, Essex.

Mr Farage’s electoral agent and Reform UK councillor Peter Harris said their party leader is “up for the challenge” of facing up to a Labour government and the exit poll prediction is “hugely exciting”.

Mr Harris told the PA news agency: “Anything’s possible if enough good decent people want change, then they can vote for it, as Brexit has proved before.

“So, we were always hoping for multiple seats, 13, I’d like even more than that, really. So I think we wait and see once all the votes are counted we’ll see how many we’ve actually got, but yeah, hugely exciting.

“Obviously, I’m completely focused on Clacton and our candidate here, Nigel Farage, we’re extremely confident that he’s going to be one of those 13 seats that gets elected to Westminster.”

On Mr Farage’s potential impact in Westminster, Mr Harris said: “He stood alone in the European Parliament, and he got the changes that he wanted and as he said to the European Parliament that when he first got there, they laughed at him and then when we left he said ‘well, you’re not laughing now’.

“So you know, I can see Nigel will be a huge voice not just for Clacton but a huge voice for so many people in this country that have felt abandoned and betrayed. So, yeah, I think Nigel is up for the challenge.”