{"id":945611,"date":"2026-05-08T07:52:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T07:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/945611\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T07:52:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T07:52:22","slug":"u-k-election-results-starmers-labour-suffer-huge-losses-as-hard-right-reform-gains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/945611\/","title":{"rendered":"U.K. election results: Starmer\u2019s Labour suffer huge losses as hard-right Reform gains"},"content":{"rendered":"

Starmer said the results \u201churt\u201d and were \u201cvery tough,\u201d but signaled he had no plans to step aside. \u201cTough days like this don\u2019t weaken my resolve to deliver the change that I promised.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though seen as a barometer of public anger, the prime minister\u2019s name itself was not on the ballot. <\/p>\n

Instead, Britons voted in more than 5,000 local government elections in England, a handful of mayoral contests around London, and votes for the Welsh and Scottish parliaments \u2014 devolved legislatures with powers over transport, health and other areas.<\/p>\n

Many of those votes were still to be counted Friday, but the partial results pointed to a clear break with the longstanding dominance of Britain\u2019s two establishment parties.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

The Conservative Party suffered a chastening defeat in 2024. And the party, now led by Kemi Badenoch, continued to shed votes.<\/p>\n

Reform was a big winner, amassing a vast array of council seats in England, while expecting strong showings in Scotland and Wales. The latter looked set to be the first time that Labour would fail to come first in Wales-wide elections in more than 100 years.<\/p>\n

Plaid Cyrmu, the left-wing, pro-Welsh independence party, was hoping to win the most seats and lead a coalition government in Wales. Their pro-independence brethren, the Scottish National Party, was likely to do the same north of the border.<\/p>\n

The left-wing Green Party hoped for a momentous night, anticipating council gains from Labour in London and other metropolitan areas. Here, younger liberals have become frustrated with Starmer\u2019s efforts to chase the right-wing vote by acting tough on immigration and pursuing a cautious economic agenda.<\/p>\n

\"WalesGreen Party leader Zack Polanski has been popular with voters.Jon Rowley \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Starmer was already facing enormous pressure over the decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, despite his known links with the late convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein. His government has also conducted more than a dozen damaging U-turns.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeir Starmer is playing existential problems buckaroo at the moment, as he stacks them on the back of his electoral donkey,\u201d said Ben Ansell, a professor of politics and international relations at the University of Oxford, before the results were announced. \u201cEverything is happening at once.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prime minister seems increasingly likely to face an internal challenge.<\/p>\n

High-profile contenders have been rumored to be readying themselves for this moment, including Health Secretary Wes Streeting, former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham. <\/p>\n

If Starmer makes it to the next general election, which can happen no later than May 2029, \u201cthat would surprise most political analysts,\u201d Ansell said. \u201cAnd it would probably surprise most members of the Labour Party at this point, tool.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Starmer said the results \u201churt\u201d and were \u201cvery tough,\u201d but signaled he had no plans to step aside.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":945612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-945611","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116537876041530313","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=945611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/945612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}