Reform UK failed to return a single seat in the latest council by-elections – just days after Nigel Farage called on local Conservative representatives to side with them.
Another 13 council by-elections were held yesterday, adding to the hundreds of other contests that have been held since the General Election took place in July.
Reform didn’t manage to pick up a single seat in the latest round, and have picked up just one additional seat from 107 council by-elections since the General Election.
The results come after Reform UK leader Farage called on Conservative county councillors to defect to his party.
In a letter obtained by the BBC, he warned Tory councillors Reform’s “ground campaign capabilities will be formidable” by May’s local elections.
He said the letter went to 1,352 Conservative county councillors as “a huge number of them genuinely agree with us and what we stand for”.
A Conservative party spokesman said: “Reform has delivered a Labour government. A vote for Reform this coming May is a vote for a Labour council.”
Related: Sales of Johnson’s memoir ‘well below expectations’ as publisher grapples to recoup £2m advance