Farage’s Reform Surges in Bruising Election for Starmer’s Labour

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he had no plans to step aside as Labour leader after early results in local elections showed Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK racking up sweeping gains over Britain’s governing party.

With counts completed in approaching a third of English councils, Reform had logged a net gain of 311 seats, while Labour’s tally was down by 210. The governing party has lost almost half of the seats it was defending, although that’s below the pace of some of the worst-case predictions.