Is Britain’s political landscape changing?

Britain's right-wing Reform UK party won a vacant parliamentary seat, a mayoralty and control of three councils on Friday in early results from elections that its leader Nigel Farage said proved it was now the real opposition. Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK won a fifth parliamentary seat, its first post as mayor and many positions on local councils in early election results on Friday which underscored the threat it poses to Britain’s main two political parties.The populist Reform, led by the Brexit campaigner Farage, hopes English local elections will mark the start of the breakdown of a century of domination of British politics by the governing Labour Party and opposition Conservatives.“It’s been a huge night for Reform,” Farage told reporters. “This is heartland Labour Party, their vote has collapsed and much of it has come to us.”
Labour losing a council by-election in Hartlepool, setting the scene for some very bad results in the North. Labour’s majority in the North Tyneside mayoralty was slashed, a post that was not previously considered in contention. In Northumberland the party lost twelve seats, down to eight, whilst Durham has been a bloodbath. Labour’s Ros Jones held the Doncaster mayor on a sharply cut majority, prompting her to say that the winter fuel payment cuts were wrong and that Labour needed to listen to what people are saying. In the most closely watched contest, for the parliamentary seat of Runcorn and Helsby, Reform won by just six votes after a full recount was ordered.Labour had won the seat in last year’s national election with a majority of almost 15,000 votes. 
Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer won one of the largest parliamentary majorities in British history last summer but has suffered the fastest decline in popularity of any newly elected government.Starmer lost support after his government raised taxes, cut benefits for the elderly, and got into a row over the use of donations, giving an opening to Farage, who is a friend of US President Donald Trump.Reform, which recently overtook Labour and the Conservatives in some national opinion polls, was leading in the total number of councilors elected with about 125 council seats declared so far.