Nigel Farage vowed to kick Keir Starmer out of No 10 at the next general election after his party triggered another extraordinary political earthquake. The Reform leader said he is gunning for the top job after Labour were swept aside in a humiliating by-election defeat.

Sir Keir’s failure to grip immigration and the decision to snatch winter fuel payments from millions of pensioners was blamed for the defeat in Runcorn and Helsby, which was dramatically taken by Reform’s Sarah Pochin by just six votes after a nail-biting recount. The result has sent panic through Labour, with MPs from across party ranks now demanding a reset of his stumbling premiership.

In a stunning set of results former Conservative minister Dame Andrea Jenkyns was elected for Reform as the first Greater Lincolnshire mayor with a majority of almost 40,000 over her former party.

The party has also surged in councils across England, taking full control of Durham, Kent, Lancashire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire councils.

A jubilant Mr Farage said: “It’s been a big night for us, beyond our wildest dreams.

“This is a Reform-Quake and just goes to show that people want change.”

He said “nobody is laughing now” at his ambition to become Prime Minister.

Mr Farage put a large part of his party’s success down to government failures on illegal immigration. Reform’s sweeping success saw the Tories on course to lose 44% of local election contests, their worst on record. He said his party, for now, are the “official opposition”.

“The Tory party is dead,” he said, adding that he doesn’t need to enter into a pact with Kemi Badenoch’s party to succeed.

“We will win the next election on our own,” he added.

The Runcorn by-election was triggered after then Labour MP Mike Amesbury punched a constituent to the ground in a fit of rage.

He quit the Commons following a suspended prison sentence, triggering the contest deep in Red Wall territory.

Ms Pochin’s victory takes Reform’s number of seats in the Commons back up to five.

Five MPs were elected for the party last year, but the whip has since been suspended from Rupert Lowe.

Labour fury quickly boiled over following the by-election defeat with backbencher Brian Leishman demanding that Sir Keir “must change course”.

In a post on X on Friday morning, the MP for Alloa and Grangemouth said: “Runcorn shows Labour must change course.

“People voted for real change last July and an end to austerity.

“The first 10 months haven’t been good enough or what the people want and if we don’t improve people’s living standards then the next government will be an extreme right wing one.”

The PM acknowledged the by-election result was “disappointing”.

He added: “What I want to say is, my response is we get it. We were elected in last year to bring about change.”

Saying his party had “started that work” by bringing down NHS waiting lists, Sir Keir added: “I am determined that we will go further and faster on the change that people want to see.”

Pressure is also mounting on Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch after her party suffered a drubbing at the ballot box.

Asked if he had a message for Mrs Badenoch, Mr Farage said: “We want you to stay on as leader.

“She’s got an impossible job. The Conservative Party is split.”

But Mrs Badenoch said the “renewal of our party has only just begun” as she acknowledged a “very difficult set of elections” for the Tories.

In a post on X, she said: “My utmost thanks to every Conservative Councillor and activist who helped get out our vote yesterday.

“Congratulations to those who have won their seats and my sincerest commiserations to those who have lost today.

“These were always going to be a very difficult set of elections coming off the high of 2021, and our historic defeat last year – and so it’s proving.

“The renewal of our party has only just begun and I’m determined to win back the trust of the public and the seats we’ve lost, in the years to come.”

Polling expert Sir John Curtice described Reform as being “in business”.

He added: “They are a major challenge.”

It wasn’t all bad for Labour and the Tories with both winning mayoral contests.

Labour narrowly held three mayoral races in North Tyneside, the West of England, and Doncaster while former MP Paul Bristow was victorious in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough for the Conservatives.

A Conservative Party spokesman said: “On a very difficult night, this is a significant win for the Conservative Party.”