{"id":26064,"date":"2026-04-30T20:45:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T20:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/26064\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T20:45:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T20:45:33","slug":"labour-faces-catastrophic-may-local-elections-and-is-set-to-lose-1850-seats-expert-predicts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/26064\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour faces catastrophic May local elections and is set to lose 1,850 seats, expert predicts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lord Robert Hayward has predicted Labour will lose more than 70% of the council seats it is defendingLee Grimsditch<\/a> Features Writer and David Lynch and Sophie Wingate Press Association Political Staff<\/p>\n

07:32, 30 Apr 2026<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,<\/p>\n

Experts predict Labour are set for catastrophic loses in the May elections(Image: Wiktor Szymanowicz, Wiktor Szymanowicz\/Future Publishing via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party faces catastrophic losses of more than 75% of the council seats it is defending across England in the forthcoming May elections, a leading polling expert has forecast.<\/p>\n

Lord Robert Hayward predicted the governing party will lose around 1,850 seats in councils across the nation.<\/p>\n

This is measured against the 2,557 seats it is defending in the upcoming vote, according to figures compiled by election specialists Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> for the latest on Greater Manchester’s politics in our newsletter<\/p>\n

Their data, which differs from that used by the Press Association, accounts for seats being contested for the first time this year following boundary changes, where a defending political party has been estimated.<\/p>\n

On May 7, voters will head to the polls to elect councillors across England, alongside parliamentary representatives in the devolved administrations in Wales and Scotland.<\/p>\n

Conservative peer and pollster Lord Hayward described his prediction as “bad news” for the Prime Minister, who finds himself in the throes of a scandal about Lord Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador, and whose popularity continues to trail behind other party leaders in opinion polls.<\/p>\n

Labour<\/a> is not the only mainstream party set to suffer big losses Lord Hayward said, predicting that Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives<\/a> will lose 600 seats.<\/p>\n

Reform UK is expected to be the main beneficiary of both of the two major parties, he predicted, gaining some 1,550 seats from both Labour and the Conservatives, largely in white working class areas outside of London.<\/p>\n

The Green Party, also a rising force in British politics, will gain 500 seats largely in London and traditionally middle class areas of other major cities, Lord Hayward said, while the Liberal Democrats<\/a> are set to make gains of around 150 seats.<\/p>\n

In Wales, Lord Hayward predicted Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party, will be the largest party in terms of both votes and seats in Wales’ Parliament, the Senedd.<\/p>\n

Different opinion polls have disagreed on the outcome in Wales, with some placing Plaid ahead and others suggesting Reform will be the largest party.<\/p>\n

Either way, the Senedd result is likely to see Labour toppled after 26 years of dominance in Welsh politics.<\/p>\n

In Scotland, Lord Hayward predicted that the SNP will be just short of a majority in the Holyrood Parliament.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the polls, the Prime Minister’s political spokesman said: “This local election comes down to a simple choice: Labour on your side, with your local Labour council working in partnership with a Labour Government, or Nigel Farage and Reform who would put your family, your NHS<\/a> and your community at risk.”<\/p>\n

Asked about Sir Keir’s message to MPs who may be confronted with dire results, the spokesman declined to “get ahead” of the outcome, and highlighted the Government’s record on “giving more rights to workers”, taking parts of the public realm back into public ownership, investing in public services and fighting child poverty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lord Robert Hayward has predicted Labour will lose more than 70% of the council seats it is defendingLee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[31,4347,14,1093,5,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-26064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-labour-party","9":"tag-local-elections","10":"tag-politics","11":"tag-sir-keir-starmer","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116495615417244832","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}