Reform UK hailed by Zia Yusuf after securing DOUBLE election victory: 'Labour has betrayed voters!'

Following her victory, Pochin declared that "the people of Runcorn have spoken, and "enough is enough".

Heaping praise on Pochin, Reform Chairman Zia Yusuf told GB News that she will be a "formidable" politician in Runcorn & Helsby, and thanked the voters who "trusted" the party with their vote.

Yusuf told GB News: "Firstly, congratulations are due to Sarah Pochin, our amazing new Reform MP. I spent a lot of time with her on this campaign, she is going to be a formidable politician and someone that we're going to be really inspired to work with.

"I've also got a message to everybody who voted for us today, who trusted us with their vote - the people watching this program who are deeply patriotic, who are sick and tired of the two old parties, the deceit, the lies, the lack of integrity - we're going to be different to that."

Noting the significance of Reform UK's win, marking the smallest ever of its kind in a modern by-election since the 1973 ballot in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Yusuf admitted there was a "real sense that something historic was about to happen".

He added: "One of the most interesting things about this whole campaign is that there was a real sense of something historic about to happen, and what we have seen already - obviously more results due to come tomorrow - but this is without a doubt the most important set of local elections in British history.

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:

• Andrea Jenkyns unleashes furious tirade at rivals as Reform secures first mayoral victory
• ‘Runcorn is a dumping ground for illegal migrants’: Reform’s newest MP reacts to by-election success
• Nigel Farage rubs salt in Starmer’s wounds with attack moments after by-election triumph: 'Coward!'

"For the primary reason that what it has shown is that the stranglehold that the two old parties have had on British politics for 100 years has been decisively broken."

Sharing the party's "next mission" following the successes of both Pochin and Dame Andrea Jenkyns, Yusuf claimed that leader Nigel Farage could be elected as the "next Prime Minister" of the United Kingdom.

Zia stated: "Not only do we now have five Reform MPs, it's going to be hundreds of Reform councillors. You're going to have Reform controlled councils for the first time. We've already won Andrea Jenkyns, who's also an incredible politician, she's now the Mayor of Lincolnshire.

"So we now have a bedrock of of official position where we can now start to deliver for constituents. And we're really clear about this, our mission is to get Nigel Farage elected to be the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, flanked by 350 to 400 Reform MPs."

Shutting down any possible "pacts or mergers" with the Tories, Yusuf concluded that they are "deeply grateful" to the voters who helped secure their two new victories, and that Labour has "betrayed" Britons.

Yusuf explained: "We've got a lot of work to do, but I just want to reiterate, we're so deeply grateful and thankful to the people who watch this programme, who support Reform and voted for us.

"Having spent quite a lot of time here campaigning and knocking on doors, if the Prime Minister had visited, it would have been less close. Labour would have gotten far fewer votes. He is deeply maligned, deeply unpopular.

"On speaking to people on the doorstep, we spoke to so many Labour voters, in some cases lifelong Labour voters who are now going to vote for Reform, who kept using the word betrayed."