A jubilant Nigel Farage declared that Reform UK is "way exceeding anything that I thought" with its local election results so far. The Reform leader hailed a "historic change in British politics" in a speech at the party's Millbank headquarters.

It comes as Reform has taken a swathe of council seats from Labour in its traditional northern heartlands. Speaking in the early hours, Mr Farage said: “I think what you’re witnessing is an historic change in British politics. Forget left-right, there is no more left-right. It is gone, it is out of the window, it’s finished.

“As you can see, we are scoring stunning percentages in traditional old Labour areas.

“We’re currently averaging about 39% of the vote, of the seats that are in already, we’re currently on 145 seats won.

“We are way exceeding anything that I thought.”

Looking ahead to results expected later on Friday, he added: “What you’ll see is the same pattern repeated across the south when we win Essex by an extraordinary margin and Norfolk by an extraordinary margin.”

It comes as Reform gained 15 councillors in Halton, Cheshire, which was the first local authority to complete its count. In some wards, Reform won with more than 50% of the vote.

In Hartlepool, Reform won all 12 seats on offer, pushing the previously Labour-held council into no overall control, while Labour also lost control of Redditch, where Reform won eight of the nine seats up for election.

Reform claimed that Labour voters “are switching directly” to Mr Farage’s outfit.

The party said on X: “It’s clear that Labour voters are switching directly to Reform.

“We are penetrating the red wall in a way the pollsters and experts simply didn’t predict. Britain wants Reform.”