‘We made mistakes’ – Starmer responds as Labour crumbles in local elections
Key Points
- Early results show Labour has been soundly defeated in England's local elections, which has raised questions over Keir Starmer's leadership.
- Labour bled voters to both the left and right, losing councils to the Greens and Lib Dems, and many to Reform UK.
- Starmer has responded to the results, taking responsibility and apologising for mistakes in not giving people enough hope for the future.
- The Conservatives lost fewer councils than Labour, but fell far behind Reform, which is the clear winner in the local elections.
As results of yesterday’s local elections trickle in, one thing is clear: Labour has taken a massive beating and bled voters to both the left and right.
Early results see Reform UK with a dominant lead, taking councils from Labour and the Conservatives, with Labour even falling behind the Liberal Democrats.
While these elections are for local councils in England and do not have direct consequences for the national government, many will see this result as a reflection of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s popularity, and this poor result may have real consequences for his leadership of the Labour Party and the country.
The local election results also show that the established two-party system in the United Kingdom has officially fallen, replaced by more extreme parties on the left and right stretching out a thinning centre.
Starmer responded to the local election results on Friday 8 May 2026, publishing a video where he admitted that these results were painful for him and the party.
“The results are tough, they are very tough, and there’s no sugarcoating it,” Starmer said.
“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.”
“When voters send a message like this, we must reflect and we must respond,” he said.
In attempting to understand why so many voters had abandoned Labour in the local elections, Starmer said he believed that the government had failed at giving them hope that their lives would improve.
“They know the status quo is letting them down and they’re frustrated — they don’t feel the changes. I get it.”
He pointed to some of the big decisions he had made to stabilise the country’s finances and stay out of the war in Iran despite pressure from the United States.
“But we’ve also made unnecessary mistakes, one of which was that although we were right to level with the public about the scale and depth of the challenges we face, we didn’t do enough to convince them that things will get better, that things will improve.”
He said that going forward, he would lay out a plan to deliver the change that people want, pointing to improving safety and public services.
“These are tough results, but tough days like this — they don’t weaken my resolve to deliver the change that I promised at the general election. They strengthen my resolve to do so,” Starmer said.
Watch the full video below.
