It hurts’: UK PM Starmer says he will take responsibility for major setback in local
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he would take complete responsibility for the bitter losses for the Labour Party in the local elections. He also noted that the outcome would not weaken his resolve to tackle the challenges facing the country’s economy.
Starmer spoke to reporters as the vote count for Thursday’s UK-wide polls for local councils and devolved Scottish and Welsh parliaments continues.
He is faced with calls to quit as party leader and prime minister after Labour lost its majorities in several key councils of Westminster, Southampton, Exeter, Redditch, Wandsworth, Hartlepool, Tamworth and Tameside.The results are tough, they are very tough, and there’s no sugarcoating it,” said Starmer.
“We have lost brilliant Labour representatives across the country; these are people who put so much into their communities, so much into our party. And that hurts, and it should hurt, and I take responsibility.
“I’m not going to walk away and plunge the country into chaos,” he said.Asked if he would be the one leading the Labour Party into the next general election, expected in 2029, he replied: “Yes. It was a five-year term I was elected to do; I intend to see that through.” However, the UK PM admitted that when voters “send a message like this”, the governing party “must reflect and respond”.
“They know the status quo is letting them down, and they’re frustrated; they don’t feel the changes,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Nigel Farage-led Reform UK is celebrating significant gains in councils across England, even as the results continue to trickle in.
The party has gained hundreds of councillors at the expense “I think overall, what’s happened is a truly historic shift in British politics,” Farage told reporters at Havering, the party’s first major victory in a London borough.
“We’ve been so used to thinking about politics in terms of Left and Right, and yet what Reform can do is to win in areas that have always been conservative. It’s a big, big day not just for our party but for a complete reshaping of British politics in every way,” he said.
In England, more than 4,500 councillors are being elected across 136 councils, as well as some local borough mayors.