REFORM UK’s candidate for St Helens North insists the party is “here for the long-term” after finishing second in both of the town’s constituencies.

Malcolm Webster won just short of a quarter of the vote in St Helens North to register a strong second-place finish, winning 9,115 votes, with more than twice the votes of the third-placed Conservatives.

Meanwhile, in St Helens South and Whiston, Raymond Peters won 6,974 votes to finish second to Labour’s Marie Rimmer.

It was an election that saw Reform have MPs elected to the House of Commons for the first time, winning five seats nationally and a host of second places across the country.

Leader Nigel Farage has vowed to be the voice of opposition to a Labour government in the Commons.

Mr Webster said Reform is now the “opposition” in St Helens.

READ > St Helens general election - the results

Asked how he felt about his performance in Thursday’s election, he said: “I’m happy with it considering how quickly we had to get things going and we don’t have the machinery of the big parties yet, it is something to build on.  

“We are here for the long-term, this is not just a one-off project” adding the party will turn its sights to the next ‘all-out’ local elections in St Helens in 2026 and the next general election.

“We start that process in the next few weeks, we’ll sit down and put together a team , and more structure than we have and take it from there.

“I think we are now the opposition in this town. You’ve got that core of people in St Helens who just keep voting Tory, it’s a bit like the old Labour vote, because they’ve always voted Tory, they’re not voting on policies.”

Mr Webster said he felt that Labour’s landslide came after the Conservatives “destroyed themselves” and that the election was just a case of “how much” Labour would win by.

“Not a single person could name a single Labour policy, the Tories had already destroyed themselves.

“Over 9,000 people (who voted Reform in St Helens North) have voted on policies, they want to change politics in St Helens.”

Mr Webster said this general election has demonstrated the need for a proportional voting system. Reform finished third in the national vote, with about 14 per cent of the popular vote translating to five MPs, while the Liberal Democrats with a lower share of the vote seeing 71 candidates elected.

“It just proves this first past the post system, I think it’s destroying the country. Sixty-six per cent of the country did not vote for Labour. They haven’t got any mandate but this majority in Parliament.”