{"id":783898,"date":"2026-05-09T08:56:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T08:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/783898\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T08:56:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T08:56:18","slug":"leader-of-the-pack-reform-uk-makes-election-gains-humiliating-labour-politics-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/783898\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Leader of the pack\u2019: Reform UK makes election gains, humiliating Labour | Politics News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Glasgow, United Kingdom \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Voters in England\u2019s local council elections<\/a> have delivered a damning verdict of Labour, in what is seen as another major blow for Prime Minister Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n

While some results from Thursday\u2019s municipal poll have yet to be declared, the populist right-wing Reform UK party have made sweeping gains<\/a> at the expense of Labour.<\/p>\n

An excess of 5,000 English council seats were up for grabs in the contest, which Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, said was seeing \u201cLabour \u2026 being wiped out\u201d by his party in \u201cmany of their most traditional areas\u201d.<\/p>\n

At the time of publishing, Labour had lost control of 35 councils and more than 1,300 seats in England, while Reform secured more than 1,350 seats and 13 councils.<\/p>\n

Reform UK, which will mount a serious challenge to Labour in the next UK general election expected to be held by 2029, \u201cwill understandably celebrate these results from their campaign\u201d, James Mitchell, a professor at the University of Edinburgh\u2019s School of Social and Political Science, told Al Jazeera. \u201cBut (it) will have to turn their attention to the more challenging business of governing.<\/p>\n

\u201cGaining a base in local government can be an important base from which to mount a challenge at the next election, but it comes with confronting and dealing with problems \u2026 Much will depend on how Reform performs in local government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Labour Party, which is viewed as shifting to the right under Starmer\u2019s leadership, despite traditionally being on the left of the political spectrum, has suffered a series of political travails since it battered the incumbent Conservatives in the 2024 UK general election.<\/p>\n

From dealing with internal challenges to his authority following a series of backbench Labour rebellions to the political fallout over the prime minister\u2019s ill-fated decision to appoint<\/a> Peter Mandelson as British ambassador to Washington, Starmer has cut a beleaguered figure for much of his premiership.<\/p>\n

This latest setback will only sharpen the knives of those within Labour who wish to see Starmer gone, says Mitchell, particularly as hundreds of MPs risk losing their jobs in the next election.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeir Starmer\u2019s authority had been damaged before these elections \u2026 and there must come a point when the self-interest of Labour MPs make a challenge [to his premiership] happen,\u201d he noted. \u201cRecovery becomes ever less likely for the prime minister with each defeat and setback.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ElectionElection staff count votes during the Havering local council election on May 8, 2026, in Romford, England [Dan Kitwood\/Getty Images] (Getty)<\/p>\n

While Reform UK are emerging as the clear winners in England\u2019s local elections, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party are also making inroads.<\/p>\n

The Greens, which have been enjoying a surge in popularity since the Jewish pro-Palestinian London Assembly Member Zack Polanski<\/a> was appointed leader in 2025, made more modest gains than expected, but are still using this as a springboard for national gains.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreen politics is grassroots, community politics,\u201d said Nick Hartley, a Newcastle-based Green Party councillor, to Al Jazeera. \u201cWhat we have seen these past two years in Newcastle is the power of people coming together to challenge what\u2019s unfair and to build local action. Reform UK, backed by billionaires<\/a> and speaking from podiums, are all about taking power for the top. They do not have our communities at their heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

England\u2019s Green Party voters remain deeply troubled by the rise of Reform UK and their anti-immigration platform. Days before the elections, Reform provoked a political storm when it pledged to establish migrant detention centres in areas controlled by the Greens if it wins the next UK general election.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir schtick is all designed to be incendiary and divisive,\u201d a supporter of the Greens in Yorkshire told Al Jazeera. \u201cWhat they stand for doesn\u2019t align with anything I believe in, and I think that, despite all their hot air, they lack actual \u2026 policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, as Starmer faces a fight to stay on as party leader, Reform UK\u2019s seismic gains in England \u2013 which, as the largest of the UK\u2019s four constituent nations, accounts for more than 80 percent of the country\u2019s total population \u2013 has put the party front and centre of a volatile domestic political landscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe results certainly look as if the message we\u2019ve been getting from opinion polls for months now is spot-on,\u201d stated Tim Bale, a politics professor at Queen Mary University of London, to Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\u201cReform is currently leader of the pack in an increasingly multiparty system and, just as importantly, top dog on the right of British politics, having taken seats from the Conservatives, as well as Labour.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Glasgow, United Kingdom \u2013\u00a0Voters in England\u2019s local council elections have delivered a damning verdict of Labour, in what…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":783899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[440,50,80,376,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-783898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-europe","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-politics","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116543790486111216","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}