UK
Starmer Suffers Losses Across UK as Farage Redraws Political Map
Keir Starmer in London, left, and Nigel Farage in Romford, on May 8.
Source: Getty Images, Bloomberg
Prime Minister Keir Starmer rejected calls to step aside as Labour leader, after a historic round of elections that saw Nigel Farage prove his populist Reform UK can win across Britain and pro-independence parties advance in Scotland and Wales.
With more than 80% of English councils declared after Thursday’s local elections, Reform had logged a net gain of 1,308 seats, claiming control of governments in traditional Labour and Conservative strongholds. While Labour’s tally was down 1,179, the governing party’s losses were still below the pace of some of the worst-case predictions.