Reform UK has lost 56 councillors since May while gaining three council seats at by-elections in the past fortnight. The losses came by defection, suspension and resignation rather than from voters. Its national polling average slid from about 27% to about 24% over weeks that begin with Nigel Farage giving up Clacton, not with the Harborne disclosure. Clacton votes tomorrow.
Reform's councillor losses and poll slide both date from Farage's 8 July Clacton exit, not from voters.
Mark Pack's 3 August count puts Reform UK's losses since the May locals at 56, up from roughly 40 a month earlier. Not one of them was removed by voters.
Mark Pack's council by-election tracker found Reform UK has lost 56 of the councillors it won in May 2026. The losses came through resignation, suspension and defection.
Pack says the churn rate is unusually high for a party this soon after a landslide win. It points to a vetting problem rather than falling public support.
YouGov's fieldwork to 11 August gave Labour 24% and Reform UK 22%, the pollster's first Labour lead in eighteen months. John Curtice puts Reform's average three points down since early July.
QatarYouGov's fieldwork to 11 August put Labour on 24% and Reform UK on 22%. That is the first Labour lead over Reform in eighteen months.
Reform's average fell from about 27% before 7 July to about 24% since. Farage said the same day he would quit Clacton, but the timing does not prove one caused the other.
Reform UK took Snettisham, Heacham and Long Sutton from other parties and held Harton, across ten council by-elections on 30 July and 6 August.
Reform UK gained three of ten council by-elections held on 30 July and 6 August. It took Snettisham, Heacham and Long Sutton from the Conservatives and an Independent. It also held Harton in South Tyneside.
The vote shares run from 35% to 56% across the four wards. That points to a strong Norfolk base rather than a single fluke result.
The Green Party gained Hooley, Merstham and Netherne from the Conservatives on 41.8%, with Reform UK second on 24.4%. Reform finished runner-up in four seats it did not win.
The Green Party gained Hooley, Merstham and Netherne on Reigate and Banstead from the Conservatives. It won 41.8% against Reform UK's 24.4%, in the same 30 July and 6 August by-election set.
Reform finished second in four of the ten seats that night. That is a wider spread than any single win or loss shows on its own.
Carol Ney resigned from Reform UK on the evening of Friday 7 August, under four months after joining and having been the Plymouth group's deputy leader.
Carol Ney resigned from Reform UK's Southway ward seat on Plymouth City Council on 7 August. She quit after group leader Steve Ricketts declined to reprimand fellow councillor Vanessa Tyler over a Facebook post.
Chris Sharpe became deputy group leader in her place without any vote of the wider group. Council standing orders allow that.
Rhys Carr, elected for Reform UK in Wakefield in May and out of the party since June, became the Social Democratic Party's first member in the district on 6 August.
Rhys Carr was elected for Reform UK in Wakefield's Ackworth, North Elmsall and Upton ward in May 2026. He left the party in June and joined the Social Democratic Party on 6 August.
He becomes the party's first Wakefield council member. His mandate belongs to him as the person elected, not to the party label, so he keeps his seat.
Michael Marra, Joe Fagan and Monica Lennon are standing to lead Scottish Labour. Nominations close at 10:00 on 17 August, and reaching the ballot takes nine separate endorsements.
Michael Marra, Joe Fagan and Monica Lennon have declared as candidates for the Scottish Labour leadership. Nominations close at 10:00 on 17 August.
Each needs three Members of the Scottish Parliament, three MPs and three affiliated organisations, including two trade unions, to reach the ballot. That threshold could eliminate any of them before the vote.
Monica Lennon said on 2 August that the Scottish Labour leadership race "reeks of misogyny and male entitlement", hours after being reported to be struggling for the endorsements she needs.
Monica Lennon said on 2 August that the Scottish Labour leadership contest 'reeks of misogyny and male entitlement'. She called the party a 'private members' club'.
She made the claim the same day she was reported to be struggling to secure the nominations she needs. Those nominations require support from Members of the Scottish Parliament, MPs and unions, to reach the ballot.
Northern Ireland's finance minister said on 11 August that Sinn Féin has "no intent, plan or otherwise" to leave the power-sharing Executive, while calling the DUP increasingly difficult to work with.
John O'Dowd, Northern Ireland's Finance Minister, spoke on 11 August. He said Sinn Fein has 'no intent, plan or otherwise' to leave the Stormont executive.
He also accepted the Democratic Unionist Party has become harder to work with. That leaves the executive's stability resting on only one side's promise.
Greater Manchester's new mayor launched a £20 million Good Growth High Streets Fund in Middleton on 10 August, nine days into the job.
Bev Craig launched a £20 million Good Growth High Streets Fund on 10 August. She unveiled it on a visit to Middleton alongside a new taskforce.
The money sits within the mayor's economic development powers, not the region's much larger transport budget. Business and community bids open later in 2026.
Ian Davidson, the returning officer for Clacton, says the 34-candidate ballot paper will cost around four times a typical by-election's, and it measures roughly 90cm.
BelgiumUnited StatesClacton's by-election ballot paper runs to 90 centimetres and lists 34 candidates. The record field reflects the £500 deposit that let so many afford to stand.
Returning officer Ian Davidson expects it to cost around four times a typical by-election ballot paper. The vote itself is due on 13 August.
Sideways. The mechanism that moves it is tomorrow's Clacton result, decided among the 34 candidates on the 90cm ballot Tendring council printed: a Farage win closes the question the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards left open when its inquiry into his undeclared £5m Harborne gift paused on 8 July 2026, and gives Reform a fresh incumbent to rebuild around. A loss turns the exodus story into an electoral defeat rather than an internal one.
