The Jaded English Town Where Nigel Farage Could Hammer Labour

RUNCORN, England — A small corner of northwest England could upend British politics. Just don’t expect residents to get excited.

Keir Starmer faces his biggest electoral test as prime minister at the Runcorn and Helsby by-election on May 1. Last year, the party got 52.9 percent support and a majority of more than 14,000 in the Cheshire seat.

In normal times, victory should be a walk in the park.

But these are not normal times. 

Mike Amesbury, the previous MP, resigned from the Commons after pleading guilty to assault by beating, having punched a constituent to the ground in the early hours of Oct. 26 last year for which he received a suspended prison sentence.

Labour has thrown the kitchen sink at keeping the seat, with flocks of activists and MPs adding their signatures to the walls of campaign HQ to show support. 

But Nigel Farage’s insurgent Reform UK espies an opening after finishing second in 2024 on 18.1 percent. 

“Reform are parking their tanks on the lawns of the red wall,” the right-wing populist told activists during the wider local election campaign.

Street stalls, door-knocking and reams of election leaflets are all fixtures of the Reform by-election circus.

The right-wing populist party’s gains last year were all in Tory seats, but the Reform UK leader is desperate to show he can also win Labour areas as he dreams of Downing Street in 2029.

The prospect of a big political upheaval has Westminster on tenterhooks and draws significant national attention to a very local contest.

But it hasn’t exactly whetted the appetites of constituents for the winning candidate. On the contrary, they shrug, roll their eyes and say whichever rosette triumphs, things are unlikely to change. 

‘Dumping ground‘

Runcorn is a town only two hours from London — yet couldn’t feel further from Westminster.

Deindustrialization of its former thriving chemicals industry has left the area struggling to find its feet. Numerous retail units have shutters down during the day, newspaper cuttings fill windows, and graffiti is prolific. A Union Jack by the canal droops opposite a funeral directory. 

While there are spots of beauty — the river Mersey separating Runcorn from Widnes, and the green Silver Jubilee Bridge connecting them — decay and neglect are everywhere.

“Nothing is going to change,” says one resident in the Local Federation of the Blind charity shop. A fellow attendee dismisses politicians as “thieving liars” who only care about their “own pockets.” A third describes politics as a “game of chess.” Like some of the other members of the public quoted in this piece, they were granted anonymity to speak candidly about the contest.

Against that backdrop of political mistrust, Reform think they stand a chance. Their candidate Sarah Pochin, a former magistrate and councilor, built her campaign around change — the word Labour used last year to great effect after years of Conservative rule.

“People are really fed up with Labour. They feel totally let down by Labour,” she said at Reform’s campaign HQ, which sits among charity shops and a Cash Converters pawn shop in Runcorn Shopping City.

Keir Starmer faces his biggest electoral test as prime minister at the Runcorn and Helsby by-election on May 1. | Ryan Jenkinson/Getty Images

The walls are full of teal branding and posters of Pochin and Farage. Piles of bundled leaflets on the floor and the tables await delivery. 

“People are very, very disillusioned,” Pochin declared. “They feel like they’re not being listened to. They feel like Runcorn is a dumping ground because they haven’t got a voice to say ‘enough is enough.’” 

But the disconnect goes wider than Runcorn. One Age UK worker, in between sorting stock and serving customers, said the “north, east and west as a whole are left out” of politics.

Whoever claims to be a better voice for the region in Westminster will ultimately win.

Labor of love

Given the circumstances, Labour are down — but far from out.

The party is determined to stop Farage’s rhetoric from translating into a win at the ballot box. 

Their candidate — councilor and former teacher Karen Shore — is confident of her chances during a meeting at Zucca, an independent cafe in the nearby town of Frodsham. It’s bustling at lunchtime with an outdoor flower display and banner advertising their organic coffee.

“There’s so much to work on, so much to do,” Shore said. “I just want to roll up my sleeves and get stuck in.” 

Emphasizing her localism, Shore claimed the doorstep response hadn’t felt “overwhelmingly negative” despite the national picture. 

Questioned about whether a Reform MP could improve accountability by challenging the government from outside rather than follow the Labour whip, Shore was unrepentant. 

“It’s really straightforward for me because if I’m a Labour MP, I’m going to be part of the party that’s in government and can get things done.” 

She added: “That’s what MPs are there for: to deliver for their communities, as opposed to sitting on the outside throwing stones … and maybe not necessarily achieving anything.” 

Nigel Farage arrives on a tractor in Frodsham as he and Reform by-election candidate Sarah Pochin visit Runcorn on April 17, 2025 in Frodsham, England. | Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Frodsham is a pleasant market town surrounded by wind turbines and birdsong. Streets are well maintained with flower beds in boxes on the pavement, old-fashioned lamp posts and a freshly painted red phone box.

A signpost by the railway bridge highlighted its heritage, with pictures of earlier settlements as well as plaques from Cheshire Community Council naming Frodsham winner of the best-kept village competition in 2001.

But despite its beauty, residents felt the same political despair.

“[I] don’t think there’s anybody left worth voting for,” said a worker at Roy’s Relics, a memorabilia shop selling coins, necklaces, CDs, DVDs, vinyl records and camouflage. He claimed the north “100 percent gets ignored,” a sentiment echoed by others.

Workers instead got on with their lives beyond politics. One Post Office employee said they were “too tired” to follow the by-election despite plenty of leaflets. A convenience store assistant said they avoided the news by not having internet at home. 

The contest reaching fever-pitch in Westminster simply hums in the background. 

Hitting a brick wall 

The winner will get a fanfare of media attention after the result. Then the hard work starts. 

One person they’ll likely have to work with is businessman John Lewis, who manages Runcorn’s Heath Business and Technical Park. Formerly a chemicals plant, the 57-acre site has more than 100 businesses supporting more than 2,000 jobs.

Rows of 1960s brutalist buildings with looming windows stretch over what feels like miles. Supportive staff help run a community garden with a small pond and space for plants.

Lewis plans to go further by creating Heath Park, an environmentally friendly development with more than 500 homes, a vertical farm and leisure spaces.

Yet despite council approval, the proposal has been called in by the government because of its proximity to chemical facilities and potential ground contamination. 

“It is what it is,” Lewis said. “We have to go through the process.” He claims the concerns were “a nonsense” but “you’ve just got to take it on the chin.” 

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage joins candidate Sarah Pochin as they visit local businesses during a campaign visit to Runcorn and Helsby. | Ryan Jenkinson/Getty Images

Labour promised to build 1.5 million homes during this parliament. The delays make that target harder.

“There will always be people who are against it, and they tend to shout louder,” Lewis said. The inquiry into the plans was meant to start in February, but was pushed back to September.

Regardless of his high profile, Lewis said he felt frustrated with democracy’s sluggishness: “If you look at the way we operate our politics and then compare it to the advancements of the way we live, it’s polls apart.” 

Both Shore and Pochin said more homes were needed — but building is easier said than done as objections and regulations throw a spanner into their plans.

“We’re seen as the poorer cousins,” said Steven Chester, owner of the park’s Premier Aquatics shop, on London’s view of the northwest. “New people coming in are going to deal with the same problems.”