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Reform UK achieved its best ever by-election result in Wellingborough tonight, coming third with 13% of the vote.

The party’s candidate, Ben Habib, told reporters that the result is “remarkable” for an “insurgent party”.

“If you extrapolate our progress, it’s remarkable, and if you do the same for the Conservative Party, it’s in the opposite direction.

“Their graph is going down, deservedly so, and our graph is going up.”

Asked why Reform is doing so well, he said: “People are absolutely fed up with the manner in which this country is being governed.”

He pointed to the UK entering a technical recession, record debt, and record high taxation.

“We need a complete, 180-degree handbrake turn in the manner in which this country is being governed, and I think the people are waking up to that.”

Jon put to Mr Habib that Reform is taking votes from the Tories, which could put Labour in Downing Street.

But he replied: “The only reason Labour win, if Labour win, is because the Tory party is utterly useless. No one can blame us for Tory failure.”

He went on to say: “The Conservative Party is the problem, and they need to go.”

Mr Habib also hit out at Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg’s appeal for the right to unify, saying the Tory parliamentary party is a “divided church”.

Tory deputy chair: Wellingborough by-election ‘a warning shot to the government’

A short while ago, one Tory party deputy chair, James Daly, reacted to the Wellingborough by-election defeat.

Firstly, Mr Daly sent his congratulations to the winning candidate, Gen Kitchen, saying: “The excitement and the determination of anybody going into parliament, who wants to tackle those local issues – if anything, I’m a politician who’s very focused on those local issues, and I thought the Labour candidate came across very well.”

On the Tory loss, he said it’s “clearly a disappointing result”, and added: “It is down to the government and down to MPs like me to listen, to ensure we act upon the reason why [we lost].”

He also said they need to understand why many thousands of registered voters did not turn up to vote.

Mr Daly insisted there is “no hard evidence” of direct switches from the Conservatives to Labour.

On the national picture, he said Rishi Sunak is “the right person with the right plan to take this country forward”.

“Each individual by-election is a product of local circumstance, as well as national circumstance,” he added, alluding to former MP Peter Bone being ousted amid allegations of misconduct (that he denies).

He did concede the huge vote for Reform is a “warning shot to the government”, and “the government will have to listen and respond to that in the appropriate way”.