Britain’s populist, anti-immigration party Reform UK has beaten Labour by a tiny margin in a by-election, dealing the government a mid-term setback and ruffling the country’s historically resilient two-party hegemony.

Britain's right-wing Reform UK party won a vacant parliamentary seat, two mayoralties and control of several councils on Friday in early results from elections that its leader Nigel Farage said proved it was now the real opposition.

The Labour and Conservative parties are digesting the results of England's local and Mayoral elections after Reform UK made major gains at their expense. With counting complete, Nigel Farage's party took control of 10 local councils,