Farage blames Makerfield defeat on anti-Starmer protest votes

Nigel Farage has blamed Reform UK’s failure to win the Makerfield by-election on voters using the ballot as a protest against the Labour government rather than a genuine endorsement of his party’s platform. The Reform UK leader said he was “disappointed” with the result, which saw Labour hold the seat despite significant pressure from the right-wing insurgent party.

What happened in Makerfield

Labour retained the Makerfield constituency, a working-class seat in Greater Manchester that Reform had targeted as a realistic gain. Reform UK finished second, pulling in a credible vote share but ultimately falling well short of overturning Labour’s majority. The final margin was enough to make Farage uncomfortable, even if it wasn’t the humiliation some had predicted.

Turnout was around 35%, which Farage’s team privately acknowledged made it harder to replicate the kind of momentum they’d built in the general election last July, when Reform pulled more than 4 million votes nationally.

Farage’s spin on the result

Speaking after the count, Farage argued that too many voters had turned out simply to give Keir Starmer a bloody nose, without fully committing to Reform’s broader agenda. “People are angry with this government, and they should be,” he said. “But we need them to vote for us because they believe in what we stand for, not just because they hate what Labour is doing.”

It’s a curious argument. Protest votes are the lifeblood of insurgent parties, and Reform has benefited from exactly that dynamic before. Critics were quick to point out the contradiction.

Labour cautious in victory

Labour’s response was notably muted. A party spokesperson welcomed the result but acknowledged the party faces “real challenges in rebuilding trust” with voters in seats like Makerfield, where traditional working-class communities have felt ignored for years.

And that’s the uncomfortable truth sitting beneath the headline. Labour held on, yes. But Reform’s second-place finish in a seat like this would have been unthinkable five years ago.

The by-election was triggered following the death of the sitting MP, meaning both parties were fighting on emotionally charged ground with a grieving local electorate watching closely.

What comes next for Reform

Still, Farage isn’t walking away from this bruised. Reform is currently polling nationally at between 22% and 26% depending on the pollster, and the party is gearing up for local elections in May where dozens of council seats are in play.

The question is whether Makerfield represents a ceiling or a stumble. Some within Reform believe the party needs a sharper economic message to convert anger into actual votes. Others think the organisation simply needs more time to build on the ground.

For now, Farage will regroup. He won’t concede that the strategy is wrong. But the Makerfield result has given his internal critics just enough ammunition to start asking louder questions about where Reform goes from here.