British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour Party suffered heavy defeats in local elections on Friday, demonstrating voter anger at Starmer and growing doubts about his future just two years after a landslide victory in a nationwide general election. Meanwhile, the far-right Reform Party made significant gains.
Starmer insisted that he would continue in his role as Prime Minister despite these “catastrophic losses”.
He acknowledged it was a “difficult” night for the Labour Party, but said that “days like this do not weaken my resolve to deliver the change I have promised.”
He stressed that he “takes responsibility for these disastrous results.”
A Labour defeat could lead to steps by rebel MPs to oust the leader who brought them to power in July 2024. Even if Starmer survives now, many analysts doubt he will lead the party in the next national election, which must be held in 2029.
The Labour Party lost support in areas that announced early results, including traditional party strongholds in central and northern England, as well as parts of the capital, London.
The far-right Reform Party, led by Nigel Farage, a leading supporter of Britain’s exit from the European Union, made the biggest gains, winning more than 300 seats in local councils in England, and could become the main opposition party in Scotland and Wales, ahead of the pro-independence Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru (the Welsh nationalist party).
The elections, which took place in 136 local councils in England and the parliaments of Scotland and Wales, are considered the most important test of public opinion before a general election scheduled for 2029.
Some Labour MPs said that factors such as the party’s poor showing in Scotland, its loss of power in Wales, and its failure to retain any of the roughly 2,500 local council seats it contested in England, meant that Starmer faced renewed pressure to resign or at least to set a timetable for his departure.
But Starmer's allies quickly rallied to his support, saying that now was not the time to move against him.
Defense Secretary John Healy said the last thing voters want is “the potential chaos of a leadership election… I think he can still deliver results, he can still change the situation.”
Early results indicate the continued disintegration of Britain’s traditional two-party system and its transformation into a multi-party democracy, something analysts describe as one of the biggest shifts in British politics in the last century.
The Labour and Conservative parties, which previously dominated the political scene, are losing votes to the Reform Party and its political antithesis, the left-wing Green Party, and nationalist parties are also expected to win elections in Scotland and Wales.
Farage said the results so far constitute “a historic shift in British politics.”
Early results indicate that the Reform Party won 335 seats in local councils in England, while the Labour Party lost 247 seats and the Conservative Party lost 127 seats.
Starmer, a former lawyer, was elected in 2024 with one of the largest parliamentary majorities in modern British history, on the basis that he would bring stability after years of political turmoil. However, his time in office has been marked by numerous policy reversals.
He insists he will lead the Labour Party in the next election. The party has never succeeded in unseating a sitting prime minister in its 125-year history.
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