UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing calls to resign after a disastrous local election
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised to revive his struggling government but faced growing calls for him to resign after the crisis. a set of local and regional elections of his Labor Party.
With the final results coming in on Saturday, Labor has lost 1,000 local council seats across England and been ousted from power in Wales after 27 years. The anti-immigration party Reform UK won almost 1,300 seats across England, came second in Wales and made significant gains in Scotland.
It was a clear vote by voters in what was widely seen as an illegitimate referendum on Starmer, whose popularity has plummeted since leading the left-wing party. less power than two years ago.
Starmer insisted he would not go and “plunge the country into chaos,” and the poor election results did not pose a challenge to his leadership.
“The thing to do is rebuild and show the way forward,” Starmer said on Saturday. “That’s what I will do in the coming days.”
Lawmakers urged Starmer to delay the departure
Starmer’s Cabinet colleagues have voiced their support, and none of the high-profile politicians seen as potential challengers have taken action. Health Secretary Wes Streeting, former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham have remained silent for now.
But a growing number of labor lawyers have urged the prime minister to delay his departure this year. British politics allows parties to change leaders mid-term without the need for new elections.
“There has to be a timetable,” legislator Clive Betts told a CBS News colleague. Another lawyer, Tony Vaughan, said there should be a “systematic change of leadership.”
Starmer tried to signal change on Saturday by bringing back two figures from previous Labor governments. He made former Prime Minister Gordon Brown a special envoy on global finance, and appointed former deputy party leader Harriet Harman as adviser on women and girls.
Starmer will deliver a speech on Monday in a bid to regain power, before the government sets out its legislative plans on Wednesday in a speech delivered by King Charles III at the State Opening of Parliament.
The election was a victory for Reform UK, the latest radical party led by political veteran Nigel Farage.
Running on an anti-establishment and anti-immigration message, the party won hundreds of local council seats in working-class areas in the north of England, such as Sunderland, which had been a staunch Labor stronghold for decades. It has also benefited the Conservatives in areas such as Essex, east London.
Farage said the results marked “an historic turning point in British politics.” He said he hoped that “the voters who came to us are not doing it as a temporary protest.”
Reform UK currently has eight of the 650 seats in Parliament and it is unclear whether it can repeat its success in the general election.
Elections have produced independent governments in Scotland and Wales led by parties committed to independence and the breakup of the United Kingdom – although neither policy is without that goal.
Economic problems are among the Labor problems
The economy is at the heart of the labor crisis, as is the case with many governing governments.
Since the end of 14 years of Conservative rule plagued by austerity and the Covid-19 pandemic, workers have struggled to ease the cost of living and jump start a sluggish economy against the harsh economic conditions of war in Ukraine and, more recently, Iran. Starmer has also angered supporters with efforts to cut welfare spending, some of which have been rolled back after the Labor uprising.
Some in Labor say the government’s achievements, including protecting employers and the minimum wage, are being ignored. Many blame Starmer, an uninspiring leader who has been marred by scandals including his poor nomination decisions. Peter Mandelsona friend of Jeffrey Epstein who was tainted by scandal, as the British ambassador in Washington.
But Stephen Houghton, outgoing leader of Barnsley council in northern England, where Labor lost to Reform, said the problem “goes much deeper than the prime minister.”
“This has been happening all over the country for 30 years, in post-industrial communities, coastal communities, left behind,” he said. “You can change prime ministers all day. If you don’t change the policy, it won’t charge you.”
The results show the fragmentation of UK politics after decades of dominance by Labor and the Conservative Party, which also lost heavily on Thursday.
The election gave voters a choice, including the centrist Liberal Democrats and nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales.
But the most successful were the rebels, Reform UK and the Green Party, whose focus has shifted from the environment to social justice and the Palestinian cause under self-described “eco populist” leader Zack Polanski. The Greens won hundreds of council seats from Labor in urban areas and university towns and took control of several local authorities.
Tony Travers, professor of government at the London School of Economics, said the results suggested the next general election, due in 2029, would not produce a majority for either party.
“So you’re in a country, after the election, with two or three big, small parties trying to figure out how they’re going to govern,” he said – something that’s often seen as “un-British.”
