Reform Anticipating "Best Result Yet" In Wellingborough By-Election

The Reform party is hoping to seriously challenge the Conservatives in Thursday’s Wellingborough by-election, as it continues to target despondent Tory voters.

Voters in the East Midlands seat will go to the polls on Thursday to select a replacement for disgraced former Tory MP Peter Bone, and it could signal the latest in a series of by-election losses for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in the last year. 

On the same day, voters in Kingswood will also vote for former Tory MP Chris Skidmore's replacement, after he resigned from Parliament in protest at the government's oil and gas policy. 

Bone was removed as Wellingborough's MP by recall petition, after an independent watchdog found that he carried out acts of bullying and one act of sexual misconduct. Helen Harrison, Bone’s partner, has been selected by the local Conservative Party as their candidate to contest the seat.

It is thought that Labour’s candidate, Gen Kitchen, could be on course to turn another Conservative patch red, when voters go to the polls this week, and while Reform doesn't expect to throw Labour off course, there is a growing confidence that they could significantly eat into the Conservative vote share. 

Reform’s co-deputy leader, Ben Habib is standing in the seat for the right-wing party, which has been encouraged by the response they have got on the doorstep in the seat. Activists have particularly noticed that the party – which has only existed in its current form since 2021 – is beginning to get recognition from voters on the doorstep. 

One Reform source told PoliticsHome that people have increasingly heard of them, but they “can’t pretend that was the case in other by-elections”. 

It is understood that the party is starting to believe the result on