Greater Lincolnshire mayor: Live results announced as further boost given to Reform UK with Dame Andrea Jenkyns win

Dame Andrea, a former Tory minister who joined Reform last year, amassed 104,133 votes. She had a majority of almost 40,000 over Rob Waltham, the Tory candidate who won 64,585 votes, while Labour picked up 30,384 votes.

In her acceptance speech, Dame Andrea said: “I have fought many elections, four general elections, my third local election, but I’m going to be brief with this don’t worry, I’ve never experienced such negativity and soul-destroying campaigns against me like this one. It was soul-destroying. The dirty tricks in the US politics I now believe is being imported into Britain.

“The Conservatives called the police on me and implied I slept with political friends. They contacted the mainstream media to smear me. The independent’s husband pushed for a hearing at the council, my barrister had to represent me. The case was dismissed.”

She added: “They undemocratically tried to remove me from the ballot. But I will say no more on this and I wish them all well. Because this is insignificant now and I’ll draw a line under it. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new dawn in British politics. The rebuilding begins here.

“Now Britain, we’re going to have a Britain where we put British people first, where we put you and your families first, where we make sure you are in front of the queue and you are at the heart of our policy decisions. Today we as Reform, as we’re making gain across the country, we will see an end to soft-touch Britain. The fightback to save the heart and soul of our great country has now begun. Now that Reform is in a place of power, we can help start rebuilding Britain.”

It comes after Reform UK’s candidate Sarah Pochin has won the byelection in Runcorn and Helsby. Reform UK won by just six votes, with a swing of 17.4%. This is said to be the closest byelection result in history.