Did Reform UK Actually Dominate the Local Elections?

The 2026 elections reported huge gains for Reform UK, however, a TikTok video has challenged the party’s actual performance, arguing that the party’s gains do not amount to “national inevitability”.

Jack Dart said Reform’s election results do not prove they dominate the country.

He said Reform now holds “around 2,440” council seats out of more than 19,000 across the UK, which is “roughly one in eight”.

Dart said: “Reform’s election results do not prove they now dominate the country, whatever the media would have you believe.”

He went on to state that other parties made gains but received less attention:

“The Liberal Democrats gain seats and the Greens gain seats, and yet the coverage has been wall-to-wall collapse, crisis and inevitability.”

He claimed Reform controls “around 23 of the approximately 382 principal councils across the United Kingdom”, which they say amounts to “about 6%” of councils after recent gains.

“The party that the media is treating as having rewritten British politics controls fewer than one in 16 councils in this country.”

According to the TikTok video, Reform’s projected national vote share from the local elections was “27%”, which it claims is “down four to five points” compared to equivalent projections from the previous year.

“Their vote share is falling.

“The seat gains are real, but they are partly a function of how seats are distributed and how the opposition votes split, not evidence of an expanding coalition.”

The clip also targets the public perception surrounding Farage.

Citing polling figures, Dart says a recent favourability tracker showed 27% of Britons viewed Farage favourably, while 65% viewed him unfavourably.

The video claims this gives the Reform leader a net favourability rating of minus 38.

“This is not a beloved national leader sweeping the country.

“It is a deeply unpopular politician benefiting from a fragmented party system and a media class that keeps confusing a temporary surge with a national inevitability.”

Dart also accused sections of the media of amplifying Reform’s political momentum by portraying its rise as unstoppable.

“The media narrative serves Reform directly.

“They need people to believe the tide is inevitable, the resistance is pointless, that the country has already made up its mind.”

“The country has not made up its mind.”

@jackdartReform’s election results do not prove they dominate the country. Their vote share fell, they control around 6% of councils, and Farage has a net favourability rating of minus 38. The media narrative of inevitability serves Reform far more than the facts do.? original sound – Jack Dart

The video concludes with criticism of some Reform-linked controversies and candidate scandals that emerged during the election campaign.

Dart references reports involving candidates accused of making extreme remarks, including calls for violence against politicians, Holocaust denial and anti-migrant rhetoric.

“They ran the worst candidate slate in modern British political history and still the media is writing them into Downing Street.

“They are not in Downing Street.

“More than 70% of voters rejected them this week.

“And that is the foundation on which everything that comes next has to be built.”