Reaction to the local elections results from Ralph Blackburn, Westminster Correspondent, the Yorkshire Post.
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00:00Hello, Rafe Blackburn, the Yorkshire Post's Westminster correspondent,
00:04reflecting on what has been a pretty seismic set of local and regional elections
00:10going on overnight and into today.
00:14First of all, picking up the parliamentary by-election in Runcorn.
00:20Reform UK won that by just six votes, beating Labour.
00:25It was previously one of Labour's biggest majorities in the country.
00:32And Nigel Farage's party also won the Greater Lincolnshire Metro Mayor
00:39with former Leeds MP Andrea Jenkins winning there.
00:45She beat her Tory competitor by 40,000 votes.
00:49That is a big, big win.
00:52So a very good night for reform.
00:55And it could get better as the day goes on.
00:58Not great for Labour, but not as bad as it could have been.
01:03Labour won in Doncaster with Ros Jones, the long-serving mayor,
01:09winning there by around 700 votes.
01:12That's a big reduction in her majority.
01:15Now, she gave a really fascinating interview after the election where she really said that
01:23Keir Starmer needs to listen to what people are saying in this election.
01:27She mentioned the winter fuel payment cut, which has been coming up a lot on the doorstep.
01:33She also mentioned welfare reforms, national insurance contribution increases.
01:37She said all of these things were hitting people in Doncaster.
01:41And she basically urged the Prime Minister to listen to the message this election was sending.
01:47As you know, in Doncaster reform, we're only around 700 votes behind.
01:51And then the Tories, with Nick Fletcher, not that far behind that.
01:54So Labour really winning in their heartlands by the skin of their teeth.
01:59And when speaking to South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard, he said what Labour needs to focus on
02:06to take on the threat of reform is about delivery.
02:09He said in South Yorkshire, there's Labour MPs.
02:12He's the Labour mayor.
02:13There's a Labour mayor in Doncaster.
02:15There's really no excuses for them not to deliver.
02:18And they will hope that if they are able to reopen Doncaster-Sheffield Airport next year,
02:24that that will be a sign of that.
02:26But both he and Ros Jones were quite clear that Labour need to step up the delivery
02:32if they're able to show that there's going to be change and they're going to win over voters.
02:37Now, the real losers of last night are the Conservatives,
02:41obviously losing significantly in Greater Lincolnshire.
02:46and other councils across the country.
02:51It's obviously coming from a high watermark in 2021,
02:54where they had one of their best ever results after Boris Johnson rolled out the vaccine.
03:00But there's already been discussions from losing candidates about whether,
03:04you know, they need to come forward with some sort of pact or agreement with reform.
03:08Nick Fletcher, the Conservative candidate for the mayor of Doncaster,
03:10made the point that right-wing parties won, you know,
03:14about two-thirds of the vote in Doncaster, yeah, obviously Labour, Labour have won that.
03:18So he says, you know, unless there's some sort of agreement or pact or merger or something with reform,
03:25then Labour are going to continue to be able to win in this way.
03:29Obviously, not all of those voters that vote for reform came from the Conservatives.
03:33There's certainly a lot that came over from Labour.
03:35But it's interesting, not that long after Kemi-Brunner ruled out any sort of pact,
03:40already Conservatives are kind of bringing this up,
03:42and that's going to become more and more regular ahead of the next election.