Keir Starmer and his wife were photographed leaving a polling station after voting in London's local elections. The image, captured by Xinhua/Shutterstock, shows the prime minister and his spouse departing the venue.
Analysis: Labour's Disastrous Night Puts Focus on Keir Starmer's Future as Leader
Kiran Stacey, Policy editor, reports that the Labour leader's position is under threat after the party lost seats in its heartlands and control of councils in Hartlepool, Tameside, Redditch, and Tamworth. The election results from 2026 are being updated live, with full returns from England, Scotland, and Wales.
Hartlepool once nearly triggered Keir Starmer's resignation, and results overnight suggest it may yet do so in the coming days. Five years ago, Labour suffered a humiliating defeat in a byelection for the city's Westminster seat, prompting Starmer to consider stepping down as opposition leader. On Thursday night, the party experienced a similarly damaging blow, losing every council seat it contested in the town to Reform UK. This outcome has once again put Starmer's leadership in question.
Jonathan Brash, the local Labour MP, told the Guardian on Thursday night: "I think the very best thing the prime minister could do now is address the nation tomorrow and set out a timetable for his departure. We can then have an orderly transition – one that, by the way, ensures the full breadth of talent within the Labour party is able to stand, should it want to."
In Downing Street, where extra advisers have reportedly been brought in to help the prime minister navigate the next few days, officials are monitoring whether others will follow Brash's lead. By Friday morning, most senior Labour MPs had remained silent. However, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy urged colleagues to stay loyal. "You don't change the pilot during a flight," he said on Thursday night. "You carry on and you recognise too that governments sometimes, particularly incumbent governments, have it hard but of course we will reflect on what we're hearing from the electorate. There's a lot of frustration."
Starmer and his allies have long anticipated that the local and devolved election results would be a perilous moment for the prime minister. Conservative peer and polling expert Robert Hayward predicted the party could lose approximately 1,850 councillors in England, while polls suggest it will lose the Senedd in Wales and fall further behind the Scottish National Party at Holyrood. Reform and the Green Party are expected to gain ground in England, while in Scotland the SNP is likely to top the polls, and in Wales Plaid Cymru hopes to do the same.
Early results from Thursday night showed Reform making significant progress, picking up council seats across the north and the Midlands, in former Labour heartlands such as Wigan, Bolton, and Salford. Labour lost control of councils in Hartlepool, Tameside, Redditch, and Tamworth. By early Friday morning, Labour had lost more than 229 council seats – over half of those it was contesting. Reform gained 305 seats, making it the biggest winner from overnight counting.
One bright spot for Labour came from London, where the party proved more resilient than expected, holding on to Hammersmith and Fulham council and defeating a strong Liberal Democrat challenge in Merton. Hayward noted: "The early results are as bad for Labour as predicted. They are probably slightly worse outside London, but slightly better inside the capital, which looks like it will be different from the rest of the country."
John Curtice, polling expert and professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, said the night was proving to be one of "substantial success" for Reform. The Conservatives also suffered heavy losses to Nigel Farage's party, losing 122 council seats in England. However, the Tories celebrated success in Westminster, where they regained control of the council from Labour. The Liberal Democrats expect an eighth consecutive set of local election gains, while the Greens hope to make headway with results coming in later in the day.
As Starmer contemplates one of the party's worst election results in history, he may take solace in the fact that every one of his likely challengers is facing heavy losses in their own areas. Labour lost control in Tameside, which is the local council of former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner. The party also struggled in other parts of the north-west, where Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham is seeking a Westminster seat in the coming months. Experts also expect Labour to perform poorly in Redbridge, the council home to Health Secretary Wes Streeting. Hayward concluded: "The one bright spot so far for Starmer is that all his natural challengers are seeing their own base swept away."
