Starmer refuses to quit as Labour suffers major local election losses

Keir Starmer’s local election setback looked less like a routine protest vote than a midterm-style warning that Labour’s coalition may be fraying faster than expected. With results still coming in from 5,066 council seats across 136 English local authorities, plus six directly elected mayoral contests and devolved votes in Scotland and Wales, the scale of the contest has made it the sharpest public test of Starmer’s government before the next general election in 2029.

The early picture was brutal for Labour. The party lost control of at least eight councils, including Westminster, Southampton, Exeter, Redditch, Wandsworth, Hartlepool, Tamworth and Tameside, while entering the contest defending more than 1,100 seats and facing forecasts that it could shed as many as 1,850 councillors. Starmer said the results were “tough” and insisted he would not resign or “walk away,” arguing that voters were demanding faster change and better living standards rather than a change of leader.

The most important shift was not simply Labour’s losses, but who benefited from them. Reform UK emerged as the main early winner, taking control of Newcastle-under-Lyme and Havering and racking up hundreds of council seats in early counts. Nigel Farage hailed what he called a “historic” shift in British politics, and the numbers backed up the claim: Reform’s gains showed that anti-establishment anger is no longer confined to the margins of local politics.

Some of Labour’s defeats will sting more for symbolism than for immediate governing impact. Losing Westminster and Wandsworth will dominate headlines, but the deeper problem for Starmer lies in the pattern across England: voters are not merely rebuking one council administration, they are signalling that the old Labour-Conservative duopoly is weakening. Conservatives and Liberal Democrats also picked up seats in some areas, but the clearest momentum belonged to Reform, which kept expanding beyond a protest brand into a force capable of winning councils.

The political meaning is stark. Less than two years after Labour ended 14 years of Conservative rule in a landslide, these results suggest that Starmer’s authority now depends on whether he can hold together voters who want faster change without losing more ground to parties promising it louder.