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Nigel Farage’s Reform UK could win a staggering 2,260 seats at next month’s local elections in England. Polling experts are predicting the biggest victory in decades.

And they have warned that Labour could lose almost 2,000 councillors as the nation turns on Sir Keir Starmer. The Tories are also expected to suffer a brutal night on May 7, which could see them losing more than 1,000 seats. Zack Polanski’s Green Party is likely to be the biggest beneficiary, boosting its numbers on councils across the country by around 450.

According to leading psephologist Steve Fisher, Reform UK’s expected victories will dwarf those of Labour under new leader Tony Blair in 1995.

During that year’s local elections, Labour won 1,661 seats, helping to pave the way for their landslide General Election victory two years later.

But Labour could lose 1,900 seats this time around in what would be their worst defeat on record.

The Tories could haemorrhage 1,010 councillors, dragging their overall total to a lowly 350.

In total, there are about 5,000 seats across 136 local councils up for grabs in what is the biggest set of voting since the 2024 General Election.

Elsewhere, voters in Scotland and Wales will elect representatives to their national parliaments, while a number of local council and mayoral polls will also take place in England.

On a national level, Reform is currently polling at around 26% among voters, down from highs of 31% in October but still well ahead of Labour, the Tories and the Greens. They are all hovering in the high teens.

Traditionally, the party in power at Westminster does badly in “midterm” elections.

Reform’s goal is to repeat the magic of last year’s local elections in which the party gained more than 600 council seats and won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election in a previously rock-solid Labour seat.

To do that, according to Fisher, they need to hit the 2,260 mark.

Farage is throwing the kitchen sink at these elections.

He intends to hold around 35 rallies across the UK in March and April and plans to devote the bulk of the party’s swelling financial war chest towards this.

Sunderland and South Tyneside in north-east England, Norfolk and Suffolk in the East, along with suburban London boroughs such as Bexley, Bromley, Havering, and Barking and Dagenham are some of their biggest targets.

Essex is another major prize for Mr Farage. He sees it as ground zero in the battle to destroy the Conservatives.

Some of the party’s biggest beasts – Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Priti Patel, Alex Burghart, John Wittingdale and Mark Francois – are all MPs in the county.

Reform is polling in second place in Scotland behind the governing Scottish National Party, with Labour in third.

In Wales, Reform is vying with Plaid Cymru for first place in the Senedd.

Third place for Labour in either Scotland or Wales on May 7 would mark a historic defeat for Sir Keir’s party.