{"id":43313,"date":"2026-04-25T16:51:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T16:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/43313\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T16:51:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T16:51:13","slug":"unpopular-starmer-a-negative-on-the-doorstep-labour-mayors-warn-as-they-fear-local-elections-wipeout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/43313\/","title":{"rendered":"Unpopular Starmer a negative on the doorstep, Labour mayors warn as they fear local elections wipeout"},"content":{"rendered":"

The widespread unpopularity of Sir Keir Starmer<\/a> and his government<\/a> \u2013 largely fuelled by \u201cpsychodrama\u201d in Westminster<\/a> \u2013 is hitting Labour<\/a> hard on the doorstep, three regional mayors<\/a> have warned as they brace for major losses in next month\u2019s local elections.<\/p>\n

In a stark warning to the prime minister<\/a>, Liverpool city region mayor Steve Rotheram<\/a>, London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan<\/a>, and West Midlands mayor Richard Parker say public dissatisfaction with the government is distracting from local issues and hampering the party\u2019s slim chance of success.<\/p>\n

They say repeated Labour<\/a> U-turns, failure to communicate successes, and the ongoing scandal over Peter Mandelson\u2019s failed security vetting<\/a> have been cited as key factors that are pushing voters away.<\/p>\n

The party has been told to prepare for \u201cexistential\u201d results on 7 May, and the embattled prime minister<\/a>, already bruised and expected to face a vote this week on a parliamentary inquiry<\/a> over what he knew about the Mandelson saga, looks set to face more pressure to step down.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The ongoing saga of Peter Mandelson\u2019s appointment as US ambassador continues to plague Sir Keir Starmer (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

In a bleak warning to Sir Keir, leading pollster Sir John Curtice<\/a> said Labour was \u201cheading for a horrendous set of results\u201d as it bids to keep hold of town halls in its English heartlands, with the prime minister<\/a>\u2019s unpopularity a driving force behind that.<\/p>\n

Sir John told The Independent: \u201cThe Labour Party\u2019s at 19 per cent in the opinion polls. They\u2019re running at a half of the level of support they got in 2022, which is when two-thirds of the seats were last contested. Starmer is deeply unpopular in the polls.<\/p>\n

\u201cLabour and the Tories are heading for a horrendous set of results. They may be bad, they may be very bad, and they may be existential.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Liverpool city region, all-out elections will be held in the boroughs of Sefton and St Helens. Nigel Farage<\/a>, whose Reform UK election slogan is \u201cGet Starmer out\u201d, has set his sights on Labour\u2019s majorities in the area, which is one of the party\u2019s most loyal cities.<\/p>\n

\"Labour<\/p>\n

Labour mayors Steve Rotheram and Richard Parker with Sir Keir Starmer (Getty)<\/p>\n

Mr Rotheram<\/a>, who won the biggest vote share of the country\u2019s metro mayors<\/a> in 2024 when he was re-elected with 68 per cent, told The Independent that U-turns made by Sir Keir\u2019s government are \u201covershadowing the good stuff\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s definitely a feeling that the \u2018own goals\u2019, the number of U-turns that the party made, have reflected really badly on everything else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s all overshadowing all the good stuff. So I do think there\u2019s an issue around that, and we need to address it. In some people\u2019s minds it\u2019s almost a referendum on what\u2019s happened nationally, and it\u2019s really not.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI think the way in which we need to approach these elections is a hyper-local, a really granular level \u2013 knocking on every single door and explaining that it\u2019s not currently an election for national issues. It\u2019s who\u2019s going to run your town hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we break beyond the people who are not supporting the likes of Keir Starmer<\/a>, when we get beyond that and explain the type of town hall that Labour are proposing, then we get a much fairer hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Mr Parker, Labour mayor of the West Midlands, where a number of votes, including all-out elections in Birmingham, will take place, said that Labour\u2019s main problem is communication.<\/p>\n

He believes the party has not reinforced to voters what it has done since its landslide general election win in 2024, citing lifting the two-child benefit cap as an example of its successes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue of a frustration with the national government, rather than the PM, has come up on the doorstep,\u201d Mr Parker told The Independent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhilst we could and need to do better, we\u2019ve also done some great things, but we\u2019ve got to be a lot better at telling people about them,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In London, Labour is on course for its worst local result<\/a> in more than four decades, with both the Greens<\/a> and Reform set to eat into its vote share.<\/p>\n

A new MRP poll of the 32 boroughs which make up the capital, conducted by YouGov for Sky News and Politico, shows Labour is on course to win the highest vote share in 15 councils \u2013 six fewer than in 2022 and its lowest level since 1982.<\/p>\n

\"Sir<\/p>\n

Sir Sadiq Khan warned that dissatisfaction with the Labour government is hindering the local elections campaign (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Sir Sadiq this week warned that Westminster politics, particularly the ongoing Mandelson crisis, was affecting the party\u2019s campaigning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He told the Financial Times he was \u201creally frustrated\u201d that the scandal was distracting from the party\u2019s local achievements.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d rather be talking about that than be on the defensive talking about the omnishambles of the Mandelson saga,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m afraid what will happen is that rather than saying to voters, \u2018Listen, this is the difference that a Labour council, working with a Labour mayor and a Labour government, can make\u2019, people may decide to punish the imperfections of the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sir Keir is widely expected to face a leadership challenge after the local election results in May, and some of the party\u2019s exasperated MPs have spoken about the damage his reputation is doing to Labour\u2019s chances.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Brash, the MP for Hartlepool, this week called on the government to \u201cget a grip\u201d as he became the first Labour MP to call for Sir Keir to go due to the Madelson saga.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am completely fed up to the back teeth of this psychodrama in Westminster, the own goals that are coming from the heart of this government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeanwhile, we have got fantastic Labour councillors, canvassers, activists up and down the country working hard and delivering for their constituencies like mine in Hartlepool, facing local elections in the shadow of this absolute mess.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The widespread unpopularity of Sir Keir Starmer and his government \u2013 largely fuelled by \u201cpsychodrama\u201d in Westminster \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[126],"tags":[264,385,27693,27691,6102,27690,9465,4766,27692],"class_list":["post-43313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-keir-starmer","tag-keir-starmer","tag-labour","tag-local-election-results","tag-local-elections","tag-peter-mandelson","tag-richard-parker","tag-sadiq-khan","tag-sir-keir","tag-steve-rotheram"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116466383910424961","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}