Colin Sutton, a former detective for London’s Metropolitan Police, has been elected as Norfolk’s Police and Crime Commissioner, marking a significant milestone for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party.
| PULSE POINTS |
❓ WHAT HAPPENED: Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party has won its first Police and Crime Commissioner election. 📺 DETAIL: On Thursday, Norfolk, a county in East England, held a Police and Crime Commissioner by-election (special election). Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) are directly elected officials in England and Wales responsible for overseeing local police forces. On Friday, Reform’s Colin Sutton, a former detective, emerged victorious, becoming Reform’s first elected PCC. Sutton secured 32,647 votes, constituting approximately 27 percent of the vote, and won a majority of 14,299 over the Conservatives, who secured second with 18,348 votes. The marks a 19 percent decrease in the party’s share of the vote. Similarly, the Labour Party plummeted to fifth place after losing roughly 24 percent of their vote share compared to the last election. The candidate for Rupert Lowe‘s Restore Britain party came sixth with 13,319 votes, less than half of the votes secured by Reform. 💬 KEY QUOTE: “I’m overjoyed. Policing has been my life and it is the best job. I believe I can make a difference and make things better,” said Sutton after his victory. 🎯 IMPACT: Sutton’s victory represents a significant milestone for Reform, which now holds its first PCC position through an election rather than party-switching. However, due to plans to create a directly elected mayor for Norfolk, who will take over the PCC’s powers, Sutton’s ability to impact local policing may be limited. Nevertheless, the results reflect a continuing trend of British voters abandoning the two main establishment parties in the United Kingdom, namely Labour and the Conservatives, and shifting towards Nigel Farage and Reform. The comfortable victory for Reform also shows the limited impact of Restore Britain, an Elon Musk-backed splinter faction of Reform, despite its ongoing attempts to supplant Reform as the main anti-establishment party on the right. Sutton’s victory also represents a continuing trend of Reform winning local by-elections since the local elections back in May. |
Wow. Huge victory for Reform in Norfolk.
Even with Restore once again trying to hand the victory to another of the uniparty candidates, Reform broke through to victory.
Exceptional in Lowe’s own back yard, too. https://t.co/KPEkaWZ4cX
— Raheem J. Kassam (@RaheemKassam) July 17, 2026
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