Nigel Farage’s Reform has won a crunch by-election by just six votes following a knife-edge recount in Runcorn and Helsby. Labour and Reform were separated by a wafer-thin margin of just four votes earlier in the night, forcing officials to recount.

Reform’s leader arrived to give an impromptu news conference beside his party’s new MP Sarah Pochin even before the results had been announced. This means Ms Pochin becomes Reform’s fifth MP and their first female in Parliament.

Ms Pochin will replace former Labour MP Mike Amesbury, who triggered the vote after resigning when he was convicted of punching a constituent.

Mr Farage has told Kemi Badenoch “please stay” as Tory leader and that Sir Keir Starmer is “making life easy” for him.

The Reform UK leader told Sky News: “Whether we won by six or lost by six, I was going to come to this count, support our candidate. Winning’s obviously fantastic but just think about the swing, just think about the swing.

“This is heartland Labour Party, their vote has collapsed and much of it has come to us. And that does away with the sort of media narrative that it’s just us versus the Conservatives. It’s not, this is a whole different politics.”

Mr Farage added that Runcorn and Helsby was a “very patriotic constituency” that no longer had faith in Labour.

He continued: “I promise you that the fact there are 750 young men who’ve illegally crossed the English Channel living in this constituency alone… It’s a sense of fairness and what’s right and what’s wrong, bordering, I would say, even on resentment. And we picked up on that very strongly on the doors with people who’ve voted Labour for all of their lives.”

Asked for his message to Sir Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch, he said: “Kemi Badenoch, please stay. I mean, please don’t resign, we want you to stay on as leader. I’ll put some money in if you like to keep you there. She’s got an impossible job, the Conservative Party is split… The Conservatives are standing in the middle of the road in terms of their own supporters and getting hit by vehicles coming both ways.

“And for Sir Keir, just keep going. You’re making life easy.”

Ms Pochin’s victory for Reform in Runcorn and Helsby has set a new record for the smallest majority at a parliamentary by-election since the end of the Second World War.

Her six votes are well below the previous record of 57, which was set at the Berwick-upon-Tweed by-election in 1973.

In her speech after she was elected, Ms Pochin thanked her team.

She said: “Firstly, to our great leader Nigel Farage, who has so inspired me to stand up for this country. The people of Runcorn and Helsby have spoken – enough is enough.

“Enough Tory failure, enough Labour lies.

“I want to thank every one of you who were brave enough to put a cross against my name on the ballot paper, every one of you who voted for change, every one of you who have put their faith in me as your next Member of Parliament for this constituency, which has such potential, and who have put their faith in Nigel Farage as the next Prime Minister of this great country.”

It is a dramatic development in a seat that Labour held with a majority of 14,696 in the 2024 General Election and came as Reform made gains in local contests across England.

Acting returning officer Stephen Young said: “Because of the close proximity of the parties, we have agreed to do a full recount of all the ballot papers.”

The 2024 result suggested it should be a safe Labour seat – Amesbury won 53% of the vote – but if the recount upholds Reform’s lead, Sarah Pochin will be the new MP.

Turnout in the by-election was 46.33%, with 32,740 votes cast.

A Labour spokesman said: “By-elections are always difficult for the party in government and the events which led to this one being called made it even harder. Voters are still rightly furious with the state of the country after 14 years of failure and clearly expect the Government to move faster with the Plan for Change.

“While Labour has suffered an extremely narrow defeat, the shock is that the Conservative vote has collapsed. Moderate voters are clearly appalled by the talk of a Tory-Reform pact.

“There are encouraging signs that our Plan for Change is working – NHS waiting lists, inflation and interest rates down with wages up – but we will go further and faster to deliver change with relentless focus on putting money back into people’s pockets.”

Elsewhere, more than 1,600 council seats were up for grabs across 23 local authorities, along with four regional mayors and two local mayors.

Labour lost seats to Reform in Northumberland while in other parts of the country Mr Farage’s party made ground at the expense of the Conservatives.