Keir Starmer to continue as Prime Minister amid election results

He acknowledged it had been a “tough” night for Labour but said that “days like this don’t weaken my resolve to deliver the change that I promised”.

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK made gains across the country as hundreds of Labour councillors were voted out, heaping pressure on the Prime Minister.

Sir Keir faces further heavy losses as vote counting continues throughout Friday in both English local elections and contests for the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd.

All the elections in England, Scotland and Wales

In Wales, Labour is expected to lose the national vote for the first time in more than a century while the SNP appears likely to remain the largest party in Scotland after 19 years in power.

Sir Keir has already faced speculation about his leadership, with the Times reporting Energy Secretary Ed Miliband had urged the Prime Minister to set out a timetable for his departure.

But Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy urged his party not to play “pass the parcel” with the leadership in response to the election results.

Labour sources pointed to poor local election results under previous prime ministers, including Sir Tony Blair who lost 1,100 councillors in 1999 but went on to win re-election in a landslide in 2001.

Meanwhile, Mr Farage hailed early results from Thursday’s local election as a sign his party was on course for victory at a general election that is still up to three years away.

A jubilant Mr Farage heralded a “historic change in British politics,” telling reporters “there is no more left-right” as his outfit was “scoring stunning percentages in traditional old Labour areas”.

(Image: Joe Giddens/PA)

The Reform leader compared the substantial gains to clearing Becher’s Brook, a famously difficult jump in the Grand National.

“If we cleared Becher’s Brook and landed well, we go on to win the Grand National.

“What is very clear to me is that our voters will stick with us now all the way through.”

With 40 of the 136 councils declaring their full results in the early hours of Friday, Reform’s gains reached 270 seats while Labour had lost more than 200.

Mr Farage’s party also took control of its first council of this set of contests, nabbing Newcastle-under-Lyme from the Conservatives.

Polling guru Sir John Curtice said the results confirmed “the fracturing of British politics”, telling the BBC that Reform was clearly ahead but still “probably not quite at 30% of the vote” while other parties were “just a little bit below 20%”.

He suggested the results may not be as bad for Labour as some had predicted, saying the party could lose less than 1,500 seats.