Starmer vows to stay on after Labour loses ground in English local elections

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Friday he would not step down after early results in England’s local elections showed Labour losing ground while Reform UK surged ahead.

“I’m not going to walk away ... and plunge the country into chaos,” Starmer told reporters as results began coming in.

Referring to Labour’s landslide victory in the July 2024 general election, he 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.”

While the votes are still being counted, Reform UK was leading with 593 seats.

The Liberal Democrats and Conservatives followed with 366 and 325 seats, respectively, while the Labour followed with 307 seats.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage described the early results as a “truly historic shift in British politics.”

“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.

About 5,000 seats across 136 local councils are being contested across England. Six mayoral races are also taking place in Watford and five London boroughs: Croydon, Hackney, Lewisham, Newham and Tower Hamlets.

Voters in Scotland and Wales also cast ballots in parliamentary elections though the vote count has not yet produced any clear results.

In Scotland, all 129 members of the Scottish Parliament -- the Holyrood -- are up for reelection, including 73 constituency lawmakers and 56 regional members.

The first results from Scotland showed the Scottish National Party winning 13 of the 15 seats declared, while Labour and the Liberal Democrats secured one seat each.

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 being transferred to Wales in 1999.

Although there are no results obtained from Wales yet, Labour figures told the BBC that they expect to lose there.