A defiant Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he is “not going to walk away” amid growing pressure on him to resign in the face of Labour’s disastrous local election results.
He said he takes responsibility for the results as the party haemorrhaged seats across the country. But the prime minister vowed to fight on, saying: “Days like this don’t weaken my resolve to deliver the change that I promised.”
Speaking as early results saw Labour lose hundreds of councillors and eight local authorities across England while Reform, the Greens and Liberal Democrats all made gains, Sir Keir said there was “no sugarcoating” the results, admitting: “That hurts, and it should hurt”.
The prime minister faces further heavy losses as vote counting continues throughout Friday in both English local elections and contests for the Scottish parliament and Welsh Senedd.
Sir Keir has already faced speculation about his leadership, with The Times reporting overnight that energy secretary Ed Miliband had urged him to set out a timetable for his departure.
But deputy prime minister David Lammy urged his party not to play “pass the parcel” with the leadership in response to the election results.
Asked if he had contemplated resignation, he told broadcasters: “The voters have sent a message about the pace of change, how they want their lives improved.
“I was elected to meet those challenges but I’m not going to walk away from those challenges.”
Meanwhile, Nigel Farage claimed that the results so far show Reform is on course to win the next general election.
Speaking at Kingsdown Methodist Church in west London on Friday morning in the face of a disastrous set of results, Sir Keir said: “The results are tough, they are very tough, and there’s no sugarcoating it.
“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 continued: “When voters send a message like this we must reflect and we must respond.
“I think the vast majority of people do understand that we face huge challenges as a country.
“We’ve had a series of economic shocks in recent years and there’s a very difficult international situation at present, they know that.
“But they still want their lives to improve, they still want to see the change that we promised, they know the status quo is letting them down and they’re frustrated, they don’t feel the changes.”
It came as polling guru Sir John Curtice said the incoming results at the local elections so far indicate the “fracturing of British politics”.
He explained that Reform UK, which is expected to be the big winners of the contest, are “not quite at 30 per cent of the vote” and “none of the parties are very big” – marking a change from the two-party system that has dominated politics in England.
Sir John told the BBC: “It may well be now that Labour lose rather less than the 1,500 seats that perhaps some people said was potentially the tipping point for attempts to unseat Keir Starmer.”
He said: “There is still a very long way to go and certainly what one has to say is this: the big picture is Reform are ahead.. But none of the parties are very big, let’s make that clear.
“Even Reform are probably not quite at 30 per cent of the vote, so the fracturing of British politics is underlined by these results and confirmed by them.”
Meanwhile, Nigel Farage insisted the results show a “truly historic shift in British politics”
Speaking from Havering, where Reform took control of a London borough council for the first time, he added: “We’ve been so used to thinking about politics in terms of left and right. But what Reform are able to do is to win in areas that have always been Conservative.
“But equally, we’re proving in a big way we can win in areas that Labour have dominated, frankly, since the end of World War One.”
