Starmer faces resignation calls after Labour election losses and ministerial revolt

Keir Starmer’s authority was badly weakened as Labour’s election losses spilled into open ministerial revolt, sharpening questions about whether the prime minister can carry his agenda through a restive party and a fragmented electorate.

Labour lost more than half the seats it was defending in the local and regional elections held on Thursday, May 8, a contest spanning about 5,000 seats across 136 city and county councils, plus six mayoral races. Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, won hundreds of council seats and made inroads in working-class places long treated as Labour territory, while also taking seats from the Conservatives in parts of Essex. The Green Party advanced in urban centers including London and Manchester, and in university towns such as Cambridge, underscoring a wider splintering of the vote as both Labour and the Conservatives were punished.

Starmer said he accepted responsibility for the “very tough” results but rejected demands that he quit, insisting he would not “walk away” and “plunge the country into chaos.” At a cabinet meeting on May 12, he told ministers there had been no official move to trigger a leadership contest, but the political damage was already spreading through his ranks. Three junior ministers resigned in protest: Miatta Fahnbulleh, Jess Phillips and Alex Davies-Jones. Fahnbulleh urged Starmer to set an exit timetable and said he should do the right thing for the country and the party.

The immediate question is not simply whether Starmer survives the week, but whether the losses mark a temporary revolt or a deeper rejection of Labour’s pace and direction after less than two years in power. Some Labour lawmakers are now urging him to go, while cabinet ministers have warned against an internal attempt to topple him. Tony Travers of the London School of Economics said the results showed established parties struggling to respond to populists on the left and right, a warning that Labour’s problems reach beyond one disappointing night.

For Starmer, the governing consequence is plain: the election did not just cost seats, it exposed the fragility of his mandate. If he cannot reassert control quickly, the contest over Labour’s future may shift from local ballots to an organized fight over succession.