Keir Starmer is likely to face difficult political times. Image: keystone
May 8, 2026, 8:26 p.mMay 8, 2026, 8:31 p.m
Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Labor Party are sliding into a serious crisis after a historic defeat in regional and local elections.
In the local elections in England, the Social Democrats lost hundreds of seats in local bodies, while the right-wing populists Reform UK emerged as the clear winner with more than a thousand seats.
In Wales – a region dominated by Labor for decades – the Social Democrats only came in third place behind the independence party Plaid Cymru and Reform UK, which are considered left-wing nationalists. Even in Scotland, where the independence party SNP is in the lead, there is no reason for the Social Democrats to be happy.
The Labor government has failed the first big acid test after its overwhelming victory in the parliamentary elections in the summer of 2024 – and the British two-party system is also faltering.
Starmer refuses to resign
Prime Minister Starmer is not thinking about leaving, despite disastrous results and calls for his resignation. “I will not run away and plunge the country into chaos,” the Labor politician told Sky News after the first results of Thursday’s election were counted.
“The results are really tough, I don’t want to sugarcoat it,” said the Prime Minister. He takes responsibility for it. “I was elected to a five-year term and I plan to see it through.” He also wants to lead his party into the next parliamentary election. In the coming days he will outline steps to bring about the promised change.
There had been strong speculation for months about Starmer’s possible replacement by his party in the event of a poor election result. It may be to Starmer’s advantage that no suitable candidate for a successor has emerged so far.
British two-party system “dead and buried”?
Reform leader Farage spoke of a “historic change in British politics”. Given his party’s strong gains in former Labor strongholds, the traditional distinction between right and left is obsolete, Farage told supporters in London. At the same time, the Conservatives in the county of Essex were swept away. In fact, Reform was able to win a majority in the local district council.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski also has drastic words: the two-party system is “dead and buried”. In the English local elections, the Greens won several hundred seats and celebrated small successes. The Green candidate Zoë Garbett was able to get the office of district mayor for the London district of Hackney, actually a Labor stronghold.
Even before the elections, experts suspected an end to two-party politics, and the British media flirted with the “era of five-party politics”. “It will also be the moment when we will retrospectively remember the night on which the two-party system collapsed,” predicted Sky News political editor Beth Rigby on the evening of super election day.
Nigel Farage as the next Prime Minister?
The next general election in Great Britain will not take place until 2029. From the perspective of the political director of the polling institute Ipsos, the gains made at local and regional levels by Farage’s party are already “extremely significant”. Reform UK has only recently become a national party, “so we are constantly looking for signs that it can be taken seriously as a potential governing party in the UK,” Keiran Pedley told the PA news agency.
The current results show broad support not only in areas with many Brexit supporters, but there is also “nationwide support”. This “activist base” forms “the basis for the election campaign” for the next parliamentary election, says Pedley.
Political scientist Sara Hobolt from the London School of Economics recently warned journalists that, according to current polls, Reform UK could win an absolute majority of seats in the coming general election thanks to the British majority voting system. In a country that has no written constitution and where there are few limits on the executive branch, this could amount to a system change, is a widespread concern.
Politics professor Anand Menon from King’s College London is more relaxed. “We are still a long way from a Prime Minister Farage,” he said recently in an interview with the dpa.
Expert: Kingdom breakup “far away”
For the first time in history, independence parties are now in the lead in all self-governing British regions (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) – although there were no elections in Northern Ireland this time. While this does not mean a breakup of the United Kingdom, the forces working towards it will emerge from the election stronger.
Politics professor Jonathan Tonge from the University of Liverpool sees a clear change, but takes a rather calm view of the situation, as he told the BBC. “The long-term future of the UK may be at risk in some ways, but that is still a long way off.” (sda/dpa)