Nigel Farage arranged a fireworks display and a party. The prime minister and the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch have both written post-mortem articles in Saturday's newspapers. Politicians often accuse journalists of a splash of hyperbole, but it would be a struggle to top the Tory leader's description of her party's results as a "bloodbath."

A recount is under way in the Runcorn & Helsby by-election in north-west England after thousands of voters swung behind Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, threatening to topple Labour in what has long been a party stronghold.