Keir Starmer faced a grim night as Labour suffered heavy losses in local and devolved elections across England, Scotland, and Wales. With Reform UK surging and the Greens and Liberal Democrats celebrating significant wins, the prime minister resisted calls to step down despite mounting pressure from within his own party.
Reform UK's Historic Gains
By early Friday, Reform UK had claimed 45% of all declared council seats, according to BBC analyst John Curtice. The party captured control of Havering, its first London council, and later took Essex county council from the Conservatives, along with Suffolk, Newcastle-under-Lyme, and Sunderland. Nigel Farage declared Havering town hall "under new management," calling the results "a truly historic shift in British politics."
However, Farage deflected questions about his own funding after it was revealed he received £5 million from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne before the 2024 general election. "Yeah, yeah, we'll talk about that any other time you like," he said.
Labour's Collapse
Labour lost half of the English council seats it was defending, with Jonathan Brash, the Hartlepool MP, calling it a "terrible" night and blaming "political cowardice" at the top. Former Labour chair Ian Lavery warned Starmer could "kill Labour" if he didn't stand down. Unite union leader Sharon Graham said it could be "the beginning of the end for the party itself" without a decisive shift towards the working class.
In Wales, Labour took only 9 of 96 Senedd seats, an astonishing collapse after nearly three decades in power. First Minister Eluned Morgan lost her seat. Plaid Cymru became the largest party with 43 seats, while Reform won 34. In Scotland, the SNP was set to win a fifth consecutive term, with Reform making significant inroads.
Greens and Lib Dems Celebrate
Green party activist Zoë Garbett became the first directly elected mayor in the party's history in Hackney, east London. Leader Zack Polanski declared, "Two-party politics is not just dying. It is dead and it is buried." The Liberal Democrats gained control of Portsmouth and Stockport, with leader Ed Davey saying Labour and the Conservatives faced "extinction-level losses."
Starmer Resists Calls to Resign
Despite the dire results, Starmer insisted he would not step down. "The voters have sent a message about the pace of change... I'm not going to walk away from those challenges and plunge the country into chaos," he said. Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar conceded defeat, blaming a "national wave" of dissatisfaction.
As the dust settled, the scale of the electoral calamity for Labour became clear, with Reform UK emerging as a major force and smaller parties gaining ground across the UK.
