‘Leader of the pack’: What next as Reform makes huge election gains?

Glasgow, United Kingdom – Voters in England’s local council elections have delivered a damning verdict of Labour as it took hundreds of seats from the UK’s governing party, in what is seen as another major blow for Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

While many results from Thursday’s municipal poll in England have yet to be declared, the populist right-wing Reform UK party have made sweeping gains at the expense of Labour, which has so far lost some 300 councillors across the 136 competing English councils.

An excess of 5,000 English council seats were up for grabs in the contest, which Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, said was seeing “Labour … being wiped out by Reform in many of their most traditional areas”. Reform UK has also gained more than 500 seats and four councils as it looks to mount a serious challenge to Labour in the next UK general election, expected to be held by 2029.

“Reform will understandably celebrate these results from their campaign, but will have to turn their attention to the more challenging business of governing,” James Mitchell, a professor at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Social and Political Science, told Al Jazeera.

“Gaining 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 … Much will depend on how Reform performs in local government.”

The Labour Party, which is viewed as shifting to the right under Starmer’s 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.

Indeed, from dealing with internal challenges to his authority following a series of backbench Labour rebellions to the political fallout over the prime minister’s ill-fated decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as British ambassador to Washington, Starmer has cut a beleaguered figure for much of his premiership.

This latest setback will only sharpen the knives of those in the parliamentary Labour Party who wish to see Starmer gone, says Mitchell, particularly when hundreds of MPs risk losing their jobs in the next election.

“Keir Starmer’s authority had been damaged before these elections … and there must come a point when the self-interest of Labour MPs make a challenge [to his premiership] happen,” he noted. “Recovery becomes ever less likely for the prime minister with each defeat and setback.”