{"id":31864,"date":"2026-05-08T20:02:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T20:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/31864\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T20:02:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T20:02:16","slug":"nigel-farage-makes-major-promise-after-stunning-election-victory-politics-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/31864\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigel Farage makes major promise after stunning election victory | Politics | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BRITAIN-POLITICS-VOTE\"<\/p>\n

Nigel Farage (Image: Getty)<\/p>\n

Nigel Farage has pledged to fix Britain after his party\u2019s stunning local elections victory. The Reform UK<\/a> leader said he will \u201cturn our great country around\u201d if he becomes Prime Minister, insisting it\u2019s what the public wants.<\/p>\n

Mr Farage<\/a> set his sights on No. 10, having crushed his rivals at the ballot box after millions went to the polls. The so-called \u201cReformquake\u201d left Sir Keir Starmer<\/a> desperately clinging onto his job tonight with Labour sustaining heavy losses in England and humiliating defeats in Scottish and Welsh elections. A jubilant Mr Farage promised the \u201cbest is yet to come\u201d, telling the Express: \u201cI stand before the British people ready to begin the process of turning our great country around. The election results this year and last year show the British people want Reform – and we have a plan to give it to them. He added: \u201cThis is a stepping stone to the next general election\u201d. More than 5,000 council seats were up for grabs in the biggest set of votes since 2024.<\/p>\n

Read more: Nigel Farage lands huge win as Starmer left humiliated with huge Labour blow <\/a><\/p>\n

Reform surged to victory in Labour\u2019s heartlands in the North and Midlands while trouncing the Tories<\/a> in swathes of seats across the country, notably in Essex, where Kemi Badenoch and some of her shadow cabinet are MPs.<\/p>\n

Mr Farage suggested the results show Reform is on course to win the next general election as he hailed a \u201chistoric change in British politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cForget left-right, there is no more left-right. It is gone, it is out of the window, it\u2019s finished,\u201d he said. By 7pm his party had gained 1,218 councillors, compared to losses of 1,082 for Labour and 470 for the Conservatives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was even more bleak in Wales and Scotland, where Labour faced monumental defeats that left the party reeling. The Greens dealt a further hammer blow by taking the mayoralty in the red rose stronghold of Hackney in London.<\/p>\n

Clamour for Sir Keir to consider his position intensified on Friday, with veteran MP Graham Stringer saying the PM was \u201cdespised on the doorstep\u201d. Ex-Cabinet minister Louise Haigh said Sir Keir \u201ccannot lead us into another election\u201d unless the Government delivers change.<\/p>\n

\"Keir<\/p>\n

Keir Starmer (Image: Getty)<\/p>\n

The head of the Labour-affiliated TSSA union has called for a new leader who can prevent a \u201ccatastrophe\u201d for the party while Unison said \u201cnot just the leader but the entire approach\u201d must be overhauled. Unite, another key donor, said the party must \u201cchange or die\u201d. As he scrambled to put a brave face on the dire situation, Sir Keir admitted \u201cunnecessary mistakes\u201d had been made. But he said would not \u201cwalk away\u201d and was planning announcements in the coming days to convince the public that \u201cthings will get better\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cDays like this don’t weaken my resolve to deliver the change that I promised,\u201d Sir Keir added.<\/p>\n

Andy Burnham, Angela Rayner<\/a>, Wes Streeting and Ed Miliband – who have all been tipped to mount a leadership challenge against Sir Keir – remained tight-lipped after the drubbing. In a desperate set of results, Labour was stripped of control of Redditch, Hartlepool, Tamworth, Exeter and Tameside councils – the latter, which in Angela Rayner\u2019s constituency, after 47 years, following major swings to Reform.<\/p>\n

It was a similar situation in Wigan as Mr Farage’s insurgents scooped all but one of the 25 seats available, including 20 from Labour.<\/p>\n

Classic \u201cRed Wall\u201d seats in Chorley, Lancashire, Salford in Greater Manchester and Merseyside also dramatically switched.<\/p>\n

Things were little better in the South, with Labour booted out of control in Southampton and Wandsworth. Reform had success in Essex, seizing 39 wards to take control of the county council from the Tories.<\/p>\n

It also secured 11 out of 14 available councillor posts in Basildon. Mrs Badenoch said she is \u201cvery proud\u201d of her party\u2019s election results, despite losing hundreds of council seats in England. The Conservative leader, who pledged to rebuild the party after it suffered its worst-ever general election defeat in 2024, said she can \u201csee those signs of renewal\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Tories took back control from Labour in Westminster, held on to their majority in Bexley and in Kensington and Chelsea, and became the biggest party in Wandsworth. However, they have lost their majority at Hampshire County Council and all 20 seats in Sutton. Reform overthrew the Conservatives<\/a> at Essex County Council, which is Mrs Badenoch\u2019s local authority, and at Suffolk County Council.<\/p>\n

Mrs Badenoch said: \u201cI said that we were going to rebuild after our worst defeat ever and we can see those signs of renewal everywhere that we are standing.\u201d<\/p>\n

She later added: \u201cJust two years ago, people were writing us off, saying that we were completely finished, and now we are winning Westminster.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigel Farage (Image: Getty) Nigel Farage has pledged to fix Britain after his party\u2019s stunning local elections victory.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,13838,3724,94,186,13837,31,95,408],"class_list":{"0":"post-31864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-british-politics-shift","10":"tag-conservative-party","11":"tag-keir-starmer","12":"tag-kemi-badenoch","13":"tag-labour-losses","14":"tag-labour-party","15":"tag-nigel-farage","16":"tag-reform-uk"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116540745352314824","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31864","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=31864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}