Keir Starmer Faces Resign Calls After Labour Loses U.K. Local Elections Across 136 Councils

Keir Starmer’s Labour Party suffered major losses in U.K. local elections held across Britain last week, prompting multiple calls for Starmer to resign.

“This year’s local election results from the United Kingdom are in”

Democracy Now!

The elections involved about 5,000 seats up for grabs across 136 council elections on Thursday, with the Labour Party winning just over 1,000 seats while losing more than 1,100 seats it previously held.

Democracy Now!

Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, gained more than 1,400 seats, while the Green Party gained more than 300 seats and the Liberal Democrats more than 150, and the Conservative Party lost over 500 seats.

Starmer took responsibility for the defeat, telling reporters, "Let me be clear, these are really tough results, I'm not going to sugar-coat it," and said he was "not going to walk away" or "plunge the country into chaos."

In an anticipated speech to his Labour Party, Keir Starmer promised to put the United Kingdom "at the heart of Europe" after what DW described as Labour’s crushing defeat in last Thursday's regional and local elections.

Starmer said, "Brexit," made us poorer and weaker," and added, "This Labour Government will define itself by rebuilding that relationship with Europe, placing the United Kingdom at the heart of Europe," while not outlining concrete plans for closer rapprochement after the 2016 exit from the European Union.

DW

DW reported that in the local elections on May 7, Labour lost about 1,500 councilors and Reform UK made a strong advance, while Starmer also announced legislation to nationalize British Steel, saying, "This week, legislation will be introduced to grant the Government powers to assume full public ownership of British Steel."

In Wales, DW said Labour held nine seats in last week's elections, with Plaid Cymru leading the Welsh Parliament with 43 of 96 seats, closely followed by Reform UK (34), and in Scotland the Scottish National Party remained in first place ahead of Labour at 17 seats (-3) and Reform UK at 15.

The local election results were framed by Democracy Now! as a signal of "wider fragmenting of politics" and a generational shift away from the two-party system, with Reform UK making substantial gains while Labour suffered heavy losses.

“Keir Starmer's party lost big in U”

NPR

Democracy Now! quoted Nigel Farage saying, "But I think, overall, what’s happened is a truly historic shift in British politics," and described him as the chief architect of Brexit and a close ally of President Donald Trump.

In the same coverage, Labour’s position was defended through Starmer’s remarks that "we’re fed up with years of the status quo," while he insisted, "I’m not going to walk away from those challenges and plunge the country into chaos."

Servimedia’s Vox spokesperson José Antonio Fúster characterized the Reform UK wins as "a warning to all of Europe," saying citizens were "fed up with being told that they can only choose between a globalist left and a self-doubting right."