Keir Starmer‘s worst nightmares are taking shape today as Labour suffers an extraordinary battering from voters in local elections.
Calls are already emerging for the PM to go with results overnight showing a bloodbath for the party across English councils. A meltdown is also looming in the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd later.
A jubilant Nigel Farage boasted of an ‘historic’ shift in politics and said he is heading for No10, as Reform plundered seats in previous Labour strongholds in the North and Midlands.
Sir Keir’s party has lost control of Redditch, Hartlepool, Tamworth, Exeter and Tameside councils to no overall control – the later after 47 years – following major swings to Reform.
It shipped 15 of 16 seats it was defending on Halton Council in Cheshire to Reform, although it retained overall control.
It was a similar situation in Wigan as Mr Farage’s insurgents scooped all but one of the 25 seats available, including 20 from Labour.
Classic ‘Red Wall’ seats in Chorley, Lancashire, Salford in Manchester and Merseyside also dramatically switched. Things were little better in the South, with Labour booted out of control in Southampton and Wandsworth.
Results are currently on track to meet the grimmest expectations for Sir Keir, ratcheting up pressure on his position. There were claims overnight that Ed Miliband has told the premier he should consider setting a departure timetable.
In a crumb of comfort for the premier, there is limited evidence so far of a Green wave sweeping through urban heartlands. Zack Polanski’s Left-wingers lost five seats to the Lib Dems in Richmond – although their prime targets are yet to declare.
Labour also clung on in Hammersmith & Fulham, as the Greens were prised out of two wards.
The Tories also have some bright spots to cling to despite a dire night overall, securing all 11 seats up for grabs on Harlow district council. They look set to take control of Westminster again.
A Labour MP who saw his wife lose her council seat as Reform surged in Hartlepool repeated his call for Sir Keir to step down.
Jonathan Brash said: ‘I’m looking for change at the top of the Labour Party.’
Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell said a leadership challenge ‘must be on the table’ if the disastrous showing continues.
The Labour group leader in Hull also demanded the PM heads for the exit door.
  Â
Read More
 How Starmer’s elections endgame could unfold: Hour-by-hour guide to poll results that might finish the PM
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy urged his party not to play ‘pass the parcel’ with the leadership, amid alarm that an emotional response to the electoral disaster could force change at the top.
He told the BBC there were ‘questions that we have to answer’ but there were ‘no circumstances in which the answer to the questions that the British people are raising is to change the leader yet again’.
Former deputy PM Angela Rayner, Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester are all regarded as ‘on manoeuvres’ to mount a challenge.
However, Ms Rayner is still haggling with HM Revenue & Customs over her unpaid stamp duty, and Mr Burnham is not currently an MP.
Reports suggest Mr Miliband has urged the PM to set a timetable for stepping down, although aides have insisted the Net Zero Secretary still backs Sir Keir.
With full results in from 33 of the 136 councils, Reform UK had gained 227 seats, with Labour losing 152.
The Conservatives had lost 59 seats, with the Greens up 14 and the Liberal Democrats 25.
Reform has had some success in Tory Essex, securing 11 out of 14 available councillor posts in Basildon. And on the county council Reform had picked up 28 out of 43 when counting stopped for the night.
Mr Farage told reporters at the party’s Millbank headquarters: ‘I think what you’re witnessing is an historic change in British politics. Forget left-right, there is no more left-right. It is gone, it is out of the window, it’s finished.’
The most extreme predictions had been for Sir Keir’s party to lose over 1,800 council seats across England. The current rate of defeats looks slightly below that – but elections expert Michael Thrasher estimated that the remaining contests are more difficult for Labour.
Labour’s 27-year grip on power in Wales is widely expected to slip later as it is overtaken by Plaid and Reform in the Senedd contest.
In Scotland Labour is on course to remain the third party at Holyrood as the SNP retains power.
But a strong night of results for Reform could see it become the main opposition north of the border and in Cardiff.
Labour activists have been given astonishing advice to avoid being seen crying on television as results trickle in overnight, through Friday and into Saturday.
Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell struck a downbeat tone after the polls closed, saying: ‘These elections are tough and took place in a difficult context.
‘After over a decade of Britain being held back, working people up and down the country rightly want to see the whole of our United Kingdom firing on all cylinders in their interests.
‘Labour has started to deliver on that promise and we are determined to make it happen everywhere for everyone.’
Government sources said the premier is planning to give a major speech on Monday, where he could try to appease mutinous MPs by pledging to go further in unwinding Brexit.
Reform UK councillors react after winning seats in all of the 12 contested wards in Hartlepool
Nigel Farage boasted at a campaign rally in St Helens, Merseyside, that Labour would be ‘wiped out’ in Red Wall areas in the North and the Midlands
If results are as bas as expected for Labour it will increase the pressure on Sir Keir, and also on those senior Labour figures linked with a run to replace him
Ballot papers are verified at the Brierton Sports Centre in Hartlepool after polls closed
Read More
 Starmer minister accuses Welsh Labour of ‘treading on people’ with policies like the 20mph speed limit as it braces to lose power
There is also ongoing wrangling within Downing Street over whether to launch a reshuffle on Saturday, potentially before the final results are even in.
One aide told the Daily Mail the idea was getting a ‘lot of traction’ and any overhaul would need to be complete before Sir Keir’s speech.
But they suggested the PM was too weak to make any big moves, and Ms Rayner’s tax issues mean she cannot be brought back yet.
‘What’s the point of a reshuffle if you’re just going to sack Liz Kendall and Peter Kyle,’ they said. ‘It doesn’t move the dial.’
The PM’s rivals have been holding fire to see the scale of the meltdown.
A More in Common poll has suggested the party will be ousted from its Birmingham City Council bastion by Reform.
Many suspect the outpouring of emotion will be great enough to sweep Sir Keir out of power – even though there is no consensus around a successor.
Almost 25,000 candidates are fighting to be elected to more than 5,000 seats on 136 councils across England.
In Scotland, all 129 seats are up for election at Holyrood while voters in Wales will choose 96 members of the Senedd.
Mr Brash said: ‘As you can imagine, I’m really angry about tonight, because Labour politicians are delivering really big things, but we need a leadership of the party that is on the side of the British people.
‘I think we’ve been too timid. We’ve got a huge majority. We can do absolutely anything we want to transform this country and make people’s lives better. We’ve done some great things so far, but it’s not enough.
‘We have to be bolder, and we have to go further. And quite frankly, we need new leadership in order to achieve that.’
He added: ‘The results are terrible. It’s devastating for Hartlepool. It’s a terrible night.
‘I don’t think Keir Starmer should survive these results.’
Mr McDonnell said: ‘The party needs to consider why we are in this situation and that discussion should be at all levels of the party and consider all the issues, including why there have been so many policy mistakes alienating our support, but the leadership question has inevitably to be on the agenda.
‘If there is to be a leadership change, it has to be an orderly transition, not a coup.’
Mr Polanski said Sir Keir should ‘listen to the people and go’.
Insisting he is bullish about the Greens’ prospects in London boroughs to be counted later, Mr Polanski said: ‘These first Green gains confirm what I’ve heard as I criss-crossed England and Wales during the campaign.
‘Voters are backing the only party taking the cost-of-living crisis seriously. We are the only party with real plans to cut bills, reduce rents and provide genuinely affordable homes.
‘I’ve made it clear that we are here not just to be disappointed by Labour, but to replace them. These early results indicate that voters want to see that change too. That is why Keir Starmer has to listen to the people and go.’
