Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has hailed the results as “a complete reshaping of British politics”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has been decimated in parliamentary elections in Scotland and Wales, as well as local elections in England. However, Starmer is refusing calls to resign.
Labour was the biggest loser in Thursday’s elections. As results came in on Friday, Starmer’s party had lost more than 1,100 local council seats in England, around 9 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and 21 seats in the Welsh Senedd, as of 7 PM local time.
While full results are not expected until Saturday, Starmer has already admitted that “when voters send a message like this, we must reflect and we must respond.” However, although the PM has been urged to resign by some within his own party, including Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, he has dismissed the idea, stating that he is not “going to walk away and plunge the country into chaos.”
Some 5,066 out of 16,000 local council seats in England and all 129 and 96 seats in the Scottish and Welsh legislatures were up for grabs on Thursday. Labour went into the election holding 5,873 local seats, but looks set to emerge with closer to 4,000.
For the first time this century, Labour will lose control of Wales, with First Minister Eluned Morgan losing her seat and the Plaid Cymru and Reform dominating the Senedd.
Labour’s loss has not been the Conservative Party’s win. While power has typically swung back and forth between both parties for more than 100 years, the Tories are on track to lose 470 council seats, plus 19 seats in Scotland and 9 in Wales.
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK was the big winner in England, picking up more than 1,200 local council seats. In some constituencies, Reform’s gains have come almost entirely at the Conservatives’ expense. Reform picked up 37 seats in Suffolk, where the Tories lost 36. Farage has spent years hammering successive Tory governments over their failure to reduce immigration and lower the cost of living, and as such has drawn the votes of dissatisfied right-wingers who once backed the Tories.
Reform UK has wiped out the Tories and won Essex County Council.
Kemi Badenoch would not even hold her own seat. pic.twitter.com/hNOeZ7tM6X
— Reform UK (@reformparty_uk) May 8, 2026
“It’s a big, big day, not just for our party, but for a complete reshaping of British politics in every way,” Farage told reporters, adding that Labour had been “wiped out.”
Zack Polanski’s Green Party has also drawn votes from former Labour supporters abandoning Starmer’s party over the prime minister’s austerity policies and support for Israel. “I said that the Green Party was going to replace Labour,” Polanski told reporters, “and we’re seeing that right across the country. The new politics is the Green Party vs. Reform.”
READ MORE: Why is Keir Starmer’s government so unpopular?
As of Friday evening, Polanski’s Greens had picked up 269 seats in England, and two seats in both the Scottish and Welsh legislatures.
May 8, 2026 at 11:59PM
RT