Politics Home | Cabinet Minister Insists Starmer Will “Stay The Course” As Early Local Election Results Show Major Labour Losses

Prime Minister Keir Starmer appointed John Healey as Secretary of State for Defence in July 2024 (Alamy)

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While most results are yet to be announced at the time of writing, those that have been declared show Nigel Farage’s Reform UK making major gains in traditionally Labour parts of northern England, such as Hartlepool and Wigan.

Speaking to Sky News on Friday morning, Healey said that Starmer would stay on in the job as he is “determined to do what he believes he’s got a duty to do, and was elected to do  – which is to lead this Labour government”.

Healey added that “too many” Labour councillors had lost their seats, and admitted that national sentiment towards the Labour government has “played a part in making their job harder”.

“What’s happened here is that we’re less than two years into a five-year term of a national government,” he said.

“It’s clear we have to go further. We have to be bolder. Keir would acknowledge we have to deliver more… He would acknowledge that we have to do more to give people a sense of hope for the future.”

However, Healey insisted that Labour could turn it around, recalling that the party lost over 1,100 councillors in the 1999 local elections, two years after its landslide general election victory in 1997, before going on to win the 2001 and 2005 general elections.

“We’ve got to work our way back. We’ve got to win back confidence,” he said.

So far, Reform has seen particular success in the north of England and the Midlands, with Labour losing control of multiple councils.

Councils such as Tameside – which covers former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner’s constituency – have gone from longstanding Labour control to no overall control after Reform gains. Farage’s party also won 24 of 25 seats up for grabs in Wigan, which is the constituency of Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy.

In both Tameside and Wigan, the Greens increased their vote share significantly, showing that Labour faces electoral threats from both right and left.

Hartlepool’s Labour MP Jonathan Brash has called for Starmer to resign after Reform took all 12 seats up for grabs at the local election, with Labour losing its majority on the council after having taken control in May 2024. 

Brash urged the Prime Minister to “set out a timetable for his resignation as quickly as possible”. 

“It’s a terrible result in Hartlepool tonight for Labour,” he said, blaming it on a “failure of leadership at the top of the Labour Party”.

However, justice minister Sarah Sackman said she expects Starmer to lead the Labour Party into the next general election.

She told Sky News on Friday morning: “Jonathan Brash was making these calls even before tonight. I don’t agree with him. I believe in this idea that you’ve got to go with a plan, not with a mood.”

The minister added: “The country is fed up with the psycho drama of a revolving door of prime ministers… People want stability, and they want leadership.”

However, she said she recognised that the Labour government needed to “tell a better story”.

“We do need a galvanising message,” she continued. 

“We need to be proudly progressive. People want to see leadership, a clear sense of direction.”

She said that government initiatives, including investments in clean energy and bringing the Renters’ Rights Act into force, must be given a “chance to work”.

“But let’s also heed the message that voters are sending us, that they want us to give them that leadership, and to go further and to listen to what their fundamental concerns are around the cost of living, their everyday lives.”

Elsewhere, the Conservatives are showing more signs of bleeding support to Reform, and are at risk of losing councils like Essex, Hampshire and Norfolk to Farage’s party later today.

However, the Tories have won Westminster Council and become the biggest party in Wandsworth, suggesting that London may become a focus of Kemi Badenoch’s effort to rebuild the Conservatives.

The Liberal Democrats have won control of some councils in both the north and south of England, but lost Hull City Council to Reform UK. 

Most of the council results will be declared throughout Friday and into Saturday, as well as the election results for the Senedd and Holyrood in Wales and Scotland.

Additional reporting by Nadine Batchelor-Hunt.