Starmer vows to stay as Labour trails Reform UK in polls
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged to remain in office after early local election results in England showed Labour losing ground to Reform UK, which now leads with 398 seats. Starmer cited his five-year mandate from the July 2024 general election.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Friday that he will not resign despite early local election results showing his Labour Party falling behind a surging Reform UK.
‘I’m not going to walk away’
“I’m not going to walk away and plunge the country into chaos,” Starmer told reporters as results began coming in, according to BBC News. Referring to Labour’s victory in the July 2024 general election, Starmer said voters had given him a five-year mandate. “That is a five-year mandate to change the country,” he said. Asked whether he intended to contest the next general election, Starmer replied: “Yes. It was a five-year term I was elected to do, I intend to see that through.” He acknowledged the results had been difficult for Labour and said the party needed to “reflect” and “respond.”
Reform UK leads early counts
With most votes still being counted, Reform UK was leading with 398 seats. The Conservative Party and Labour Party were running nearly even with 256 and 253 seats respectively, while the Liberal Democrats followed with 249. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage described the early results as a “truly historic shift in British politics,” according to Sky News. “We have been so used to thinking about politics in terms of left and right, and yet what Reform is able to do is win in areas that have always been Conservative,” he said.
Elections across the UK
About 5,000 seats across 136 local councils are being contested in England, along with six mayoral races in Watford and five London boroughs. Full results are expected by Saturday. Voters in Scotland are electing all 129 members of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood), while in Wales voters are choosing the next Welsh government and members of the Senedd in what has been described as the biggest change to the parliament since powers began devolving in 1999. Türkiye continues to monitor European political developments closely, as shifts in major Western nations often influence broader international relations and foreign policy directions.
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