British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged to revive his struggling government after Labour’s disastrous showing in local and regional elections, with results released Saturday delivering a sharp blow to the governing party’s standing. As the final counts came in, Labour suffered a net loss of more than 1,100 local council seats across England, lost control of several local authorities it had held for decades, and was removed from power in Wales after 27 years, the Associated Press reported.
Labour’s setbacks set off renewed leadership pressure on Starmer, who had faced mounting doubts about his ability to turn around the government’s fortunes. The AP described the elections as widely viewed as an unofficial referendum on Starmer, whose popularity has fallen since he took Labour to power less than two years ago. Starmer insisted he would not step down, while lawmakers in the governing party urged him to set a timetable for departure this year.
Starmer told reporters Saturday, “The right thing to do is rebuild and show the path forward,” and he added, “That’s what I’m going to do in the coming days.” The Associated Press said Starmer’s Cabinet colleagues expressed support and that no high-profile Labour politician considered a potential challenger moved against him immediately; it named Health Secretary Wes Streeting, former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham as among those keeping quiet at the time.
But the AP also reported that a growing number of Labour lawmakers called for a schedule for an exit, noting that British politics allows parties to change leader midterm without triggering a new election. Legislator Clive Betts told the BBC that “There has to be a timetable,” while lawmaker Tony Vaughan said there should be an “orderly transition of leadership.” Labour lawmaker Catherine West said she would try to run for party leader if the Cabinet did not remove Starmer by Monday, though she acknowledged she lacked the support of 81 colleagues needed to force a contest.
In an effort to demonstrate change after the losses, Starmer brought back two figures from past Labour governments on Saturday. The AP said he made former Prime Minister Gordon Brown a special envoy on global finance and appointed Harriet Harman, the party’s ex-deputy leader, as an adviser on women and girls. Starmer was also scheduled to make another speech on Monday, before the government sets out its legislative plans on Wednesday during a speech delivered by King Charles III at the State Opening of Parliament.
The election results also marked a breakthrough for Reform UK, the hard-right party led by veteran nationalist Nigel Farage. The AP reported that Reform won more than 1,300 local council seats across England and gained in working-class areas in England’s north, including Sunderland, where Labour had been entrenched for decades. It also reported that Reform made gains from the Conservatives in areas such as Essex and increased its vote share in Wales and Scotland, as the party took on new ground outside its traditional base.
Farage said the results reflected a “historic change in British politics,” adding that he was confident voters “who have come to us are not doing it as a short-term protest.” Still, the AP said Reform currently holds just eight of the 650 seats in the House of Commons and it remained unclear whether it could repeat its success in a national election.
Within the United Kingdom’s devolved governments, the AP said the results produced administrations in Scotland and Wales led by parties advocating independence—though neither put that policy at the front of its agenda. In Scotland, the Scottish National Party won another term in Edinburgh but fell short of a majority, making an independence referendum unlikely. The AP said Labour and Reform tied for second place there, while in Wales Plaid Cymru won the most seats in the Cardiff-based Senedd and was expected to form the next government; the AP described Reform as coming second and Labour third, with outgoing First Minister Eluned Morgan losing her seat.
The AP attributed much of Labour’s trouble to frustration with the economy, saying the issue sits at the heart of incumbent governments’ problems. It said Labour has struggled to ease cost-of-living pressures and jump-start a sluggish economy since ending 14 years of Conservative rule, in the context of war in Ukraine and later Iran, and it said Starmer had faced anger among supporters over moves to cut welfare spending that were partly reversed after Labour revolts.
The article included comments from Stephen Houghton, the outgoing Barnsley council leader in northern England, where Labour lost to Reform. Houghton said the problem “goes deeper than the prime minister,” arguing, “This has been coming for 30 years around the country, in post-industrial communities, coastal communities, that have been left behind,” and he added, “You can change prime ministers all day long. If you don’t change policy, it’s not going to change.”
Finally, the AP said the elections reflected a fragmentation of U.K. politics after decades in which Labour and the Conservatives dominated, noting that Thursday’s Conservative losses compounded the shift. It reported that voters faced a broader range of choices, including centrist Liberal Democrats, nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales, and that the biggest winners included populist insurgents like Reform UK and the Green Party—whose campaign focus has expanded beyond the environment to social justice and the Palestinian cause under its self-described “eco populist” leader Zack Polanski. The AP said the Greens won hundreds of council seats from Labour in urban centers and university towns and took control of several local authorities, and it cited Tony Travers, a government professor at the London School of Economics, saying the results suggested the next national election, due by 2029, may not produce a majority for any party.
“So then you’re in the world of, after the election, two or three big minority parties trying to work out how they would govern,” Travers said, adding that the prospect was “very un-British.”