UK leader Keir Starmer said yesterday he took responsibility for "very tough" local election results that saw the hard-right make big gains, but vowed to carry on as prime minister."I'm not going to walk away and plunge the country into chaos," Starmer said, after his ruling Labour party lost hundreds of councillors in England.Labour was also braced for humiliating results in voting for devolved parliaments in Scotland and Wales due to be announced later."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," he added.The ballot was the biggest electoral test for Starmer since Labour ousted the Conservatives following 14 years in power in a landslide election victory in 2024.The grim predictions made by opinion polls were borne out in results.Nigel Farage's anti-immigrant Reform UK party had gained 478 seats while Labour had lost 322 across 57 of the 136 English councils to announce results by mid-Friday.Reform had taken control of three councils — the counties of Suffolk and Essex in eastern England and the central town of Newcastle-under-Lyme.Farage said the local election results had demonstrated a "truly historic shift in British politics", adding that Reform was now "the most national of all the parties. We are here to stay".Big losses for Labour could amplify calls for Starmer, 63, to resign or face a long-rumoured party leadership challenge. Starmer is now one of the most unpopular prime ministers ever, according to polls.He insisted however that "days like this don't weaken my resolve to deliver the change that I promised".— Missteps-Pollster John Curtice, of Glasgow's University of Strathclyde, said the results illustrated a new fragmentation of British politics with Labour being hit from its right by Reform and its left by the Greens.Those backing Reform were "broadly people with a relatively socially conservative outlook" who had "lost confidence in the traditional mainstream parties" and were sympathetic to the party's views on issues such as immigration and Brexit, he said.The ballot decided around 5,000 local council seats, out of 16,000, across England, while in Wales and Scotland voters elected new devolved parliaments.Reform and the left-wing Greens, led by self-described eco-populist Zack Polanski, benefited from widespread disillusionment with Starmer's government and policy missteps.He has also failed to fulfil his main election promise of spurring economic growth. Impatient Britons are still suffering a cost-of-living crisis, including from high energy prices.London finance worker Ian Tanner said he disliked Starmer's "dreadful policies" but was fearful any replacement might be "even more left-wing"."It's a case of you've got to be careful what you wish for," he said.Another finance worker, Dayo Foster, 60, said she believed Labour was doing "all the right things" and that Starmer just needed more time. "I don't want him to resign, no, I think we need a bit of stability".— Leadership rumours —Surveys suggest Labour will lose control of the devolved Welsh government for the first time since Wales got its own parliament 27 years ago.Reform or the pro-independence Plaid Cymru are expected to become the biggest party.Labour also fears a drubbing in Scotland, where the Scottish National Party (SNP) is expected to extend its 19-year control of the parliament in Edinburgh.In London, the Greens picked up disaffected left-wingers with a pro-Gaza message.Kemi Badenoch's right-wing Conservatives was also bracing for the loss of traditional strongholds.Early results in the capital included a mayoral win for the Greens in the east London borough of Hackney.Hailing the election of Zoe Garbett in one of the party's target areas, Polanski said "two party politics is not just dying, it is dead and it is buried".Britain's media has been full of rumours that ex-deputy prime minister Angela Rayner or Health Secretary Wes Streeting could try to oust Starmer after the results.Neither is universally popular within Labour, however, and would need the backing of 20% of the party's MPs to launch a contest. Related Story
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