Labour Haemorrhages Seats as Reform UK Surges in English Local Elections

The Guardian reported Friday that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party shed roughly 200 councillors in Thursday’s English local elections. Reform UK seized its first council and pushed deep into Labour’s traditional northern base.

Reform UK Claims Its First Council

Reform gained outright control of Newcastle-under-Lyme, flipping it from Labour by around 6am Friday morning. The result marked the first council in Reform’s short history under its own governance.

Party leader Nigel Farage declared the early results a turning point for British politics. He said Reform was posting exceptional vote shares across long-established Labour areas in the north of England.

Political scientist Prof Sir John Curtice told the BBC that Reform was clearly leading the popular vote. He cautioned, however, that the party had probably not yet cleared 30% of the overall tally. Four other parties were clustered just below 20%, making the wider landscape difficult to read.

Hartlepool Hit Hardest

Reform’s performance in Hartlepool was particularly stark. The party won all 12 contested seats in the north-eastern town, leaving Labour likely to fall into opposition on the council it previously held with a slim majority.

Only a third of the council’s seats were up for grabs on Thursday. Reform will therefore need agreements with independent councillors before it can assume full control.

At the count, Labour MP Jonathan Brash watched his wife, Hartlepool council leader Pamela Hargreaves, lose her seat. He told The Guardian the night had been a disaster entirely unrelated to local candidates’ efforts. He called on Starmer to set out a departure timetable and allow an orderly leadership transition.

Also Read: What Is Reform UK and Why Is It Growing?

Background: Labour Entered the Night on the Defensive

Senior Labour figures had privately anticipated the party could lose as many as 1,850 councillors nationwide. Strategists described the elections as genuinely tough going in before a single result was declared.

Curtice noted that actual losses could fall short of the 1,500-seat threshold that some had flagged as a potential trigger for a formal leadership challenge against Starmer. That offered Labour a narrow consolation in an otherwise bleak early picture.

Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, a longtime Corbyn ally, also weighed in on the results, adding his voice to growing internal pressure on the prime minister.

Also Read: UK Local Elections 2026: Full Results Tracker

What Comes Next for Starmer

The full scale of Labour’s losses will become clearer through Friday as remaining English counts, plus Scottish and Welsh results, filter through. Pressure on Starmer is expected to intensify if final tallies approach earlier worst-case projections.

Reform’s ability to translate strong vote shares into council majorities will be the key structural test for Farage’s operation heading into any future national cycle.

Read Next: Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party Eyes Expansion Beyond English Councils