How Local UK Elections Could Decide Starmer’s Fate

Britons will head to the polls on Thursday for one of the most consequential rounds of local elections in memory, with control of the Scottish and Welsh parliaments and more than half of England’s councils at stake.

The unusually broad elections will provide a verdict on Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s performance after less than two years in the job. With the governing Labour Party’s popularity tanking after policy missteps, repeated tax hikes and questions about Starmer’s judgment in appointing Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US, the ballot carries unusually high stakes.