Keir Starmer has maintained that he intends to continue serving as British prime minister, even as his Labour party endured a catastrophic outing in the local elections.
He conceded it had been a “tough” night for Labour but said that “days like this don’t weaken my resolve to deliver the change that I promised,” reports RTE.
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK swept gains across the country as scores of Labour councillors were ousted, piling further pressure on Mr Starmer.
He faces the prospect of deeper losses as counting continues throughout the day, covering English local elections as well as contests for the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Senedd, reports RTE.
In Wales, Labour is on track to lose the national vote for the first time in over a century, while the SNP looks set to remain the dominant party in Scotland after 19 years at the helm.
Early tallies showed Labour bleeding hundreds of councillors and relinquishing eight local authorities across England, while Reform, the Greens, and the Liberal Democrats all recorded gains, reports RTE.
Mr Starmer had already been facing questions over his leadership, with the Times of London reporting that Energy Secretary Ed Miliband had pressed him to announce a departure timeline.
But Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy called on his party to avoid playing “pass the parcel” with the leadership in the wake of the election outcomes, reports RTE.
Labour insiders drew comparisons with poor local election performances under past prime ministers, pointing to Tony Blair, who shed 1,100 councillors in 1999 yet went on to secure a landslide re-election victory in 2001.
Meanwhile, Mr Farage seized on the early results from the previous day’s local elections as evidence that his party was heading toward victory at a general election still potentially three years away, reports RTE.
A buoyant Mr Farage hailed a “historic change in British politics,” telling reporters “there is no more left-right” as his party was “scoring stunning percentages in traditional old Labour areas.”
The Reform leader likened the substantial gains to clearing Becher’s Brook, a notoriously challenging jump in the Grand National, reports RTE.
“If we cleared Becher’s Brook and landed well, we go on to win the Grand National.
“What is very clear to me is that our voters will stick with us now all the way through,” reports RTE.
With 40 of the 136 councils having declared full results in the early hours of Friday, Reform had accumulated 270 seats while Labour had dropped more than 200.
Mr Farage’s party also seized control of its first council in this round of contests, wresting Newcastle-under-Lyme away from the Conservatives, reports RTE.
Reform UK claimed all 12 available seats in Hartlepool, nudging the formerly Labour-held council into a position of no overall control.
Labour surrendered control of eight further authorities, among them Wandsworth, Westminster, and Tameside — which encompasses Angela Rayner’s Greater Manchester constituency, reports RTE.
The Liberal Democrats appeared on track for an eighth straight year of council gains, taking control of Stockport and Portsmouth and becoming the sole party on Richmond upon Thames Council, though they forfeited their narrow majority in Hull.
The Conservatives absorbed further losses but found some relief, managing to recapture Westminster from Labour and hold on to Harlow in Essex and Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, reports RTE.
The Green Party registered modest gains overnight, with more significant advances anticipated as the party’s target councils in London began declaring results.
Polling expert John Curtice described the outcomes as confirmation of “the fracturing of British politics,” telling the BBC that Reform was clearly in front but probably “not quite at 30% of the vote,” while other parties were “just a little bit below 20%,” reports RTE.
He indicated the results might not prove as damaging for Labour as some had feared, suggesting the party could end up losing fewer than 1,500 seats.
Only around a fifth of English council seats were counted overnight, but the early picture matched forecasts — a difficult night for Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour, and an encouraging one for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which had claimed roughly a third of the seats declared so far, reports RTE.
With around 1,000 seats filled by 7am, Reform was out in front on 327 seats, the Liberal Democrats were second on 237, Labour were third on 229 — a loss of 246 — the Conservatives were fourth on 196 having dropped 122, and the Greens were fifth on 48 seats, with Independents holding 40.
Counting for the majority of other council seats, along with the Scottish and Welsh Parliaments, was set to commence at 9.30am, reports RTE.
Pre-election surveys suggested the Scottish National Party would hold on to the Scottish Parliament but likely fall short of an outright majority — an outcome widely seen as a prerequisite for the SNP to revive its push for another Scottish independence referendum.
The most consequential outcome, however, could unfold in the Welsh Senedd, where more than a century of Labour dominance in national elections and 27 unbroken years of Labour governance in Cardiff could come to an end, with polling pointing to a tight race between Plaid Cymru and Reform UK for the position of largest party, reports RTE.
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