Labour appears to be haemorrhaging council seats in local elections across England as initial results point towards significant gains for Reform UK. Sir Keir Starmer's party entered Thursday's local elections expected to lose up to 1,850 councillors, with senior figures describing the contest as 'tough'.
Early Results Paint Bleak Picture
Initial results painted a bleak picture for the Prime Minister, with Labour losing councillors in its traditional northern heartlands. In Halton, Cheshire, Labour held only two of the 17 seats it was defending, while Reform UK gained 15 councillors in the first council to complete its count on Friday morning. In some wards, Reform won with more than 50% of the vote, a stark contrast to last year when Nigel Farage's party won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election by just six votes.
Although Labour's starting position means it retains control of Halton Council, the shift in vote share combined with losses elsewhere in the North West points to a difficult night for Sir Keir. Those results include losses to Reform in Chorley, Lancashire, and Wigan, Greater Manchester.
Reform UK Sweeps Hartlepool
In Hartlepool, Reform won all 12 seats on offer, pushing the previously Labour-held council into no overall control. Labour also lost control of Redditch, where Reform won eight of the nine seats up for election. In the first three councils to complete their counts, Labour lost 26 seats while Reform gained 34.
A national drubbing is likely to reignite speculation about Sir Keir's leadership of the party and the country. Before polls closed, The Times reported that Energy Secretary and former Labour leader Ed Miliband had privately urged the Prime Minister to set out a timetable for his departure after the elections.
Pressure on Starmer
Hartlepool MP Jonathan Brash, whose wife Pamela Hargreaves lost her seat in Reform's clean sweep, said Sir Keir should go. He told The Guardian: '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.'
But Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy urged his party not to play 'pass the parcel' with the leadership in response to the election results. He told the BBC there were 'questions that we have to answer' but there were 'no circumstances in which the answer to the questions that the British people are raising is to change the leader yet again'. Labour sources also pointed to the heavy defeat suffered by the party in 1999 before Sir Tony Blair went on to win re-election by a landslide in 2001.
Reform UK's 'Turquoise Wave'
Meanwhile, Nigel Farage's Reform UK is set to make significant gains, building on last year's local elections that saw the party pick up almost 700 councillors and take control of 10 authorities. Pointing to the fragmentation of the traditional two-party duopoly, Reform's Zia Yusuf told the Press Association he expected to see 'a turquoise wave' across Labour's traditional heartlands. He said: 'We are used to, in our lifetimes, Labour or the Conservative Party winning majorities in general elections with north of 40% of the vote. And I think now, they are going to struggle to get 40% between them, and I don't think they're coming back.'
Early results also showed Reform success further south, with the party picking up seats in Brentwood, Essex.
Greens and Lib Dems Also Gain
The Greens are also expected to do well, with new leader Zack Polanski predicting 'record-breaking local elections' for the party, while Sir Ed Davey's Liberal Democrats are eyeing an eighth successive year of local gains. But it could be another bad night for the Conservatives despite an improvement in party leader Kemi Badenoch's approval rating, with the party expected to lose further ground to Reform.
Almost 25,000 candidates were fighting to be elected to more than 5,000 seats on 136 councils across England, where six local mayoral contests also took place. In Scotland, all 129 seats were up for election at Holyrood while voters in Wales were choosing 96 members of the Senedd. Votes in Wales and Scotland are not due to be counted until later on Friday, but both elections are expected to pile further pressure on the Prime Minister. Labour faces losing the national vote in Wales for the first time in more than a century, while in Scotland the SNP appears likely to remain the largest party after 19 years in power.
