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UK's Labour Party Got Brutalized in Recent Local Elections...and Many Want Keir Starmer to Resign

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  May 14, 2026 6:55 AM

The UK Labor Party took a big hit in last week's local elections. It was a brutal loss, with over 1,300 council seats gone. Nigel Farage’s Reform Party had a great night, securing over 1,400 local seats. There are many lessons to learn here, especially that the UK could be heading into a period of multi-party politics (via CBS News):

The United Kingdom's governing Labour Party and the opposition Conservative Party, which together have dominated British politics and seated every prime minister for more than 100 years, both took a gut punch in a major round of local elections on Thursday. 

For Labour leader and current Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the heavy losses on city councils across England, even with votes still being counted in Scotland and Wales, paint a bruising picture.

Starmer took office less than two years ago, after Labour won a landslide in the last national parliamentary elections. In Thursday's voting, the party lost more than half of its seats on local councils, fueling renewed calls for Starmer to resign as leader of both his party and the country.

The biggest winners of the night appeared to be Nigel Farage and his right-wing populist party Reform UK, which made significant gains across England.

But one thing is clear: Prime Minister Keir Starmer might have to go. Calls from within Labour have been growing for him to step down. Like Joe Biden, he refuses to grasp that the jig is up. Some are saying that this dismal electoral showing was unsurvivable for Starmer, whose approval ratings have been poor for months:

We’ll keep track, but this rebel faction is growing.