Starmer vows to fight on as PM despite heavy local election losses for Labour

Keir Starmer has vowed to fight on as prime minister despite early results in local elections that show his party suffering heavy losses, many at the hands of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Starmer struck a defiant note on Friday morning in the face of calls from some of his MPs to quit, insisting he remained as determined as ever to deliver the promises on which he was elected less than two years ago.

With Labour having lost control of councils in its heartlands across northern England and the Midlands, the prime minister was facing calls to resign from Labour MPs, including the former shadow chancellor John McDonnell and the Hartlepool MP, Jonathan Brash.

Reform’s successes meanwhile look set to confirm its place as England’s most popular party and underline the decline of the two-party domination of British politics.

Starmer admitted on Friday morning the results were looking bad for his party. “The results are tough, they are very tough, and there’s no sugarcoating it,” he said.

“We have lost brilliant Labour representatives across the country, these are people who put so much into their communities, so much into our party. And that hurts, and it should hurt, and I take responsibility.”

But he added: “I accept that [the results] reflect voters don’t feel that their lives have changed enough or quickly enough, and that’s been going on for a long time. We were elected to deal with that, and I’m not going to walk away from that responsibility and plunge the country into chaos.”

By Friday morning, Labour had lost about half the council seats it was contesting, losing control of councils in Hartlepool, Tameside, Redditch and Tamworth.

Some of the biggest losses came in the “red wall” former industrial seats that held the key to the Tories’ election win in 2019, and to an extent Labour’s victory in 2024.

The party was proving more resilient in London, however, where it retained control in Ealing, and Hammersmith and Fulham, as well as holding off a strong Liberal Democrat challenge in Merton. However, it lost control of Wandsworth and also Westminster.

The results sparked another round of criticism for the embattled prime minister, whose approval ratings are some of the worst for any in history.

Brash told the Guardian on Thursday night: “I think the very best thing the prime minister could do now is address the nation tomorrow and set out a timetable for his departure. We can then have an orderly transition, one that, by the way, ensures the full breadth of talent within the Labour party is able to stand, should it want to.”