Starmer’s Party Suffers Stark Losses in U.K. Local Elections

Starmer’s Party Suffers Stark Losses in U.K. Local Elections Prime Minister Keir Starmer took responsibility as Labour lost more than a thousand municipal seats but insisted he would not resign. With the right-wing populist Reform U.K. party headed by Nigel Farage posting significant gains in local elections, Prime Minister Keir Starmer took responsibility on Friday for large Labour Party losses, saying that he would “not sugarcoat” voters’ scathing verdict on his 22 months in office. Results from Thursday’s municipal elections in England and parliamentary votes in Scotland and Wales are shattering the grip on power long held by Labour and the Conservatives, and signaling a new political landscape in which at least seven parties are vying for votes across Britain. In returns announced late on Friday, Mr. Farage’s party had gained more than 1,400 seats on municipal councils across England, taking seats from the Conservative Party and Labour and consolidating Reform’s status as the dominant party of Britain’s political right. Mr. Starmer’s Labour Party suffered deep losses as it shed support to the left-wing Green Party, the Liberal Democrats and Reform. By evening, Labour had lost more than 1,300 council seats, with the vote count still incomplete. About 5,000 council seats were being contested in total. In Wales, where Labour had dominated politics since 1922, the party suffered a crushing blow. The left-wing nationalist party Plaid Cymru (pronounced plide KUM-ree) was on track to win the largest number of seats in the Welsh Parliament. Labour received far fewer votes and came in third in the number of seats, after Reform. “Voters have sent a message about the pace of change, how they want their lives improved,” Mr. Starmer told reporters on Friday morning. But he insisted he would not resign, saying, “I was elected to meet those challenges, and I’m not going to walk away from those challenges and plunge the country into chaos.” Mr. Farage, an ally of President Trump, declared that Reform had made “historic” gains and should now be treated as a national party with broad support across Britain. The party has surged in popularity in the last two years, but it has just eight lawmakers in the British Parliament. “It’s a big, big day, not just for our party, but for a complete reshaping of British politics,” Mr. Farage told reporters. The Green Party and the Liberal Democrats also made gains, adding to pressure on Mr. Starmer and further eroding the clout of the Conservatives. The Greens have so far won more than 360 council seats, and the Liberal Democrats have gained over 150. Votes are still being counted, and more results are expected into Friday evening and Saturday morning. Public opinion surveys had for months predicted a tough election for Labour. Polls have shown that Mr. Starmer is one of the least popular British leaders in modern history. Here’s what else to know: Starmer’s struggles: Mr. Starmer’s tenure has been marked by a series of flip-flops on taxes, welfare, immigration and digital IDs. He has also been wounded by scandals, including his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to the United States in spite of Mr. Mandelson’s association with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender. Reform’s future: Mr. Farage is hoping that Reform’s strong showing will improve the party’s chances of a much more significant victory in a general election, although that does not have to take place until 2029. Scotland’s elections: The left-wing Scottish National Party, which has led the Parliament for almost 20 years, is hoping that its longstanding campaign for Scotland to be independent from the United Kingdom will keep it in power. Labour in Wales: Voters ended Labour’s control of the Welsh Parliament, known as the Senedd, for the first time since Wales gained its own political assembly. Plaid Cymru, which favors Welsh independence, won the largest number of seats. The final ballots are still being counted in Scotland, as well as in a handful of local council elections around England. But the picture is now clear: big gains for Reform U.K., huge losses for Labour and a fractured political system with seven parties vying for votes. In Scotland, the Scottish National Party is the big winner in the devolved Parliament, far ahead of the other parties with 57 seats. The final counting into the night on Friday will determine whether it wins an outright majority. For now, Labour is in second place, with 17, and Reform U.K. is next, with 15, but there are enough seats still to be decided to make those parties’ final standing uncertain. Near the quiet high street of Bexley Village, voters streamed in and out of a polling station in a church hall on Thursday afternoon. Among them was Duncan Blatch, 62, who has lived in the area for over 50 years, and said he had never worked on local political campaigns until this election. He has spent the last several weeks knocking on doors for the Conservative Party, urging his neighbors to vote and trying to convince them to stick with the party that has long dominated local politics here. “I’ve always voted Conservative, always taken it for granted, and it can’t be taken for granted anymore,” he said. The borough of Bexley, tucked away on the southeastern outskirts of London, was a key battleground for the right. Polling had suggested that Reform U.K., the right-wing populist party led by Nigel Farage, could upend more than two decades of Conservative Party control in Bexley, a reflection of the broader political flux Britain is experiencing. But on Friday morning, as the results for Bexley were announced, it became clear that the Conservatives’ efforts in the borough had paid off and that they had held control of the council. The Conservative Party won 29 seats, while Reform U.K. and the Labour Party claimed 7 each. With British voters souring on the two main parties that have long dominated British politics — the Conservatives and Labour — smaller parties have picked up big wins in local elections. In London’s outer boroughs, like Bexley, the right-wing Reform U.K. party had been seen as the biggest risk for defection from right-leaning voters turning away from the Conservative Party. The Conservatives took the potential for a Reform victory in Bexley very seriously, as evidenced by a visit last week from Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative Party leader, to the shops of Bexley Village as she campaigned for local candidates. Reform U.K. had gained control of the county council in neighboring Kent in last year’s local elections, ending more than 30 years of Conservative control there. But for many voters, the party’s brand of populist, anti-immigration and “MAGA-style” tactics remain unpalatable. Lesley Griffin, 65, who visited the polling station in Bexley Village with her two Jack Russell terriers in tow on Thursday, said she normally voted for Labour. She did so in the last general election, but said she felt that under the current government, things have worsened nationally and locally. She declined to say who she would be voting for, but said she was most worried about a potential shift to Reform U.K. in Bexley. “I hope not too many people are voting for them,” she said. “They are vile.” Michael Perry, 28, who bought a home in Bexley two years ago, said he was thinking solely about local issues when voting on Thursday, but his main aim was to vote against Reform. “Bexley is generally a nice place, and if you look around the village, it’s not as built up as other areas of London,” he said. He was planning to vote strategically for the Conservative Party, as he felt they had done a decent job locally, and said he was opposed to Reform U.K. and its policies. “For the national government, I voted for Labour, but they are not going to get in around here, so there is no point,” he said. “It’s either you vote for Conservatives or Reform here in the end.” Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENTIn Wales, Plaid Cymru, the left-of-center nationalist party, has won parliamentary elections, ending decades of dominance of Welsh politics by the Labour Party. Plaid won 43 seats, Reform came second with 34, Labour won nine, the Conservatives seven, the Greens two and the Liberal Democrats one. Eluned Morgan, the Labour Party’s first minister in Wales, has failed to win a seat in Ceredigion Penfro, in the middle and west of the country. That means she has lost her place in the Welsh Parliament, known as the Senedd. So far, Plaid Cymru, the left-of-center nationalists, are ahead with 30 seats; the right-wing Reform U.K. is second, with 22; and Labour is third, with seven seats. The elections on Thursday for more than 5,000 seats on English municipalities, known as councils, took place under a voting system that was created when two big parties, Labour and the Conservatives, dominated the field. But with the British electorate fragmenting, and several new or reinvigorated parties now jostling for influence, that system is under unprecedented strain. Known as “first past the post,” the British system awards a seat to the candidate with the most votes in each electoral area. Losers get nothing. Even if one candidate only receives a small percentage of the overall vote, he or she can still win by securing just a few votes more than the closest rival. While that seemed logical when the vast majority of voters chose between just two parties, it is being tested by the rise of the right-wing populist Reform U.K. party, which has been leading national polls at around 25 percent of the vote, and by the insurgent left-wing Green Party, which has risen to around 17 percent in recent months. Support for the centrist Liberal Democrats, a party that has been a presence in British politics for decades, and for independent candidates is further fragmenting the vote. With at least five parties now contesting elections in a serious way, seats can be won on a low share of the vote. “Our system is set up for binary fights: Two fighters in the ring, the one that wins gets the seat,” said Robert Ford, a professor of politics at the University of Manchester. “But if you’ve got five or six people in the ring, the one that ‘wins’ does not in any sense have the support of the majority of the people in that area.” Complicating matters, elections also took place on Thursday for the Scottish and Welsh parliaments, and those use two different but more proportionate systems. Last year’s English council elections — using first past the post — threw up some jarring results. Seventy-five candidates were elected with each winning less than 30 percent of the vote, according to Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, two academics who specialize in elections. In one area of Cornwall, the Liberal Democrat winner won with 19 percent of the vote, narrowly ahead of the Reform candidate, who had 17 percent. The first five candidates were separated by a total of just 110 votes. “It’s a signal of stress on the first-past-the-post electoral system,” said Professor Ford. “It’s a sign of a system that is not really able to accommodate the diversity of preferences that are being expressed.” He predicted that this pattern might be repeated in many municipal subdivisions, known as wards, where enough candidates from one party could win with around 25 percent of the vote to gain control of the municipality. “That might mean you have a London council with a Reform majority, where three-quarters of people voted anti-Reform,” said Professor Ford. “That’s obviously problematic, but it’s a plausible outcome in the current scenario.” It’s worse still when you factor in that local elections generally attract a lower participation rate than general elections, and that only 30 to 40 percent of those who could vote actually do so. Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENTAs expected, the battle to be the biggest party in Wales is shaping up to be a two-horse race between Plaid Cymru, the center-left nationalist party, and Reform U.K, the right-wing anti-immigration party. So far, Plaid has won 19 seats and Reform 15. Labour — traditionally the dominant force in Wales — is trailing a distant third, with five seats. The Conservatives have two seats and the Greens one. It may be a churlish question on a day when Nigel Farage’s Reform U.K. has won big, but has the party peaked? An analysis for Sky News of the results for English councils suggests that Reform U.K. has 27 percent of the vote share, and the Conservatives 20 percent. Labour has 16 percent, the Liberal Democrats have 14 percent and the Greens 13 percent. For Reform, that’s good and in line with recent opinion polls. But it’s also down from the local elections last year, when the party won an estimated 32 percent of the vote. Tony McKinney, 70, has been an English teacher for most of his life in Dumbarton, Scotland, a small riverside town outside Glasgow. He remembers a time when the center-left Labour Party was the dominant political force in his community. “The joke was, you can put a Mickey Mouse dog with a red rosette on it and it would be elected,” Mr. McKinney, a Labour member, said recently, referring to the color that traditionally symbolizes the party. It hasn’t been that way for a while now. The Scottish National Party, a left-wing party that campaigns for Scotland to be independent from the United Kingdom, has led the Scottish Parliament for almost 20 years. In a recent interview, Mr. McKinney recalled a conversation with friends years ago who told him, “Labour have let us down. Labour have just taken us for granted.” In recent years, support for the S.N.P. has been hit by scandals, the exit of a popular leader and internal turmoil. For a time in 2024, it seemed as though a resurgent Labour could challenge the party for control of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. But the unpopularity of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s party since he entered Downing Street has helped boost the S.N.P. As of Friday morning, results were still being tallied in contests for the Scottish and Welsh parliaments and in many local council races in England. Polls before the elections on Thursday suggested the S.N.P. would win the highest number of seats in the Scottish vote, although it was likely to fall short of an outright majority. Political analysts have suggested that Reform U.K., the right-wing populist party, could do well and push Labour into third place. Over coffee in late April, Mr. McKinney said he thought the results would end up being viewed as a referendum on Mr. Starmer’s leadership. Labour’s general election victory in 2024 ended 14 years of Conservative Party-led government in Britain. But Mr. Starmer’s time in government has been turbulent, with many criticizing the former lawyer as lacking charisma and showing indecisiveness. “A lot of people weren’t convinced by Starmer in the first place,” he said, adding that the prime minister was not seen as having effectively navigated the country. “Being a nice, strong figure? A lot of people don’t see it that way.” But Mr. McKinney said he still planned to vote for Labour on Thursday, in part because of what he believes the party has always tried to stand for. And, he said, because the Conservative Party, sometimes called the Tories, had been in power too long. “Labour to me always stood for, like, some kind of equality and fairness,” he said. “And we were dead happy when Starmer got in because the Tories — see if you’re too long in power, it starts to get ridiculous. It just really does.” Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENTIn Scotland, John Swinney has predicted that his pro-independence Scottish National Party “is going to emerge as the largest party” in elections to the country’s Parliament. Swinney, who took over as leader of the S.N.P. and first minister two years ago, at a difficult time for the party, says it is a moment of “enormous significance” personally. It’s still early however. So far the S.N.P has won 22 seats, the Conservatives have two and Labour and the Liberal Democrats one each. For Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, Thursday’s election results could end up triggering another turbulent period of speculation about the fate of his political career. Mr. Starmer and his top allies have for months been dreading the municipal elections, anticipating that his Labour Party will suffer a drubbing from voters angry about high costs of living and who view Mr. Starmer as weak and indecisive. That has prompted speculation among politicians in Westminster over whether Mr. Starmer’s rivals in the Labour Party will mount a leadership challenge that could force him out of office. This is not the first time this year that Mr. Starmer has faced such a perilous moment. In February, allies closed ranks around him after revelations that Peter Mandelson, whom Mr. Starmer had chosen as ambassador to the United States, had a closer relationship than previously known with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender. A move to oust Mr. Starmer might not happen right away. Doing that could take weeks or even months of procedural steps and political planning. And some supporters of Labour argue that Mr. Starmer should stay in his post to ensure stability in a period of economic turmoil and war in the Middle East. Several Labour members of Parliament are believed to be weighing a challenge, even as they publicly continue to support the prime minister. Each of the potential challengers has political vulnerabilities. Here’s a look at Mr. Starmer’s Labour rivals: Angela Rayner Ms. Rayner was the housing secretary in Mr. Starmer’s cabinet until she resigned in September amid revelations that she had failed to pay adequate taxes when she bought a seaside apartment. She said at the time that she had relied on legal advice when making the purchase and that she had not tried to evade paying taxes. Ethics authorities are reviewing her case and could affirm her assertions, which would make a potential bid to become prime minister easier. But it is unclear when the results of that review will come. Wes Streeting Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has been supportive of the prime minister in public but is reported to be organizing a campaign apparatus for a possible run at Mr. Starmer. In November, Mr. Streeting was forced to publicly deny that he was plotting against the prime minister, an anonymous accusation that appeared to come from Mr. Starmer’s anxious advisers. Still, most people around Westminster believe that Mr. Streeting is ambitious and eyeing Britain’s top office. Andy Burnham Andy Burnham, the popular mayor of Manchester, England, also appears to be preparing for a possible challenge to Mr. Starmer. To do so, under Labour Party rules, he would first have to win election to a seat in Parliament, which would then require him to resign as mayor. Last January, Mr. Burnham sought to run in a special election for a parliamentary seat from a district near Manchester. He was blocked by a Labour Party committee controlled by allies of Mr. Starmer, who saw Mr. Burnham’s move as a prelude to a possible leadership bid. In Wales the first results are coming through. Reform U.K and Plaid Cymru have both so far won two seats, while Labour and the Conservatives both have one. These results seem to be in line with predictions that Labour would lose power, with Reform and Plaid neck and neck to be the biggest new force in Welsh politics. Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENTFew places have been as loyal to Britain’s governing Labour Party as the valleys of South Wales. But even in Wales, Labour risks falling behind not just one rival party but two, according to opinion polls that show the right-wing populist Reform U.K. party battling for the top spot with the center-left Plaid Cymru. “I’ve always been Labour, but this time I’m swaying towards Plaid,” said Nesta Evans, 78, a retired teacher who lives in Tredegar, a former mining and iron-working town. Labour has dominated in Welsh politics for a century and has led the government in Cardiff, the capital, ever since the forerunner of the Welsh Parliament was created in 1999. To Ms. Evans, that means the party has had enough time to accomplish more than it has, she said. Unlike Plaid Cymru, Ms. Evans does not support independence for Wales, but she said she was reassured by the party’s pledge that the discussion was not for the present but was “years ahead.” Taylor Jenkins, 26, a part-time teacher who lives with his parents in Tredegar, said that while his parents had once voted for the Conservative Party, they were now supporting Reform. Mr. Jenkins said he planned to stick with Labour. “I just think it’s too big a change, and I don’t know if that’s good,” he said. “At least we know what we’ve got at the moment; we don’t want it to get any worse.” In his campaign office in Caerphilly last week, Llyr Powell, a Reform U.K. candidate for the Welsh Parliament, described Labour as “the most successful party in the Western world here in Wales,” because of the number of lawmakers it has sent to the British Parliament in Westminster. “We are the insurgents; we are the ones who are growing in the polls; we are the opposition to Labour,” Mr. Powell said. That contention is hotly disputed by Lindsay Whittle, a candidate for Plaid Cymru for Blaenau Gwent Caerffili Rhymni, the same constituency Mr. Powell is from. Mr. Whittle said he had been in the party since the 1960s and predicted it would defeat Labour on Friday. “It’s the atomic explosion, the death of the Labour party,” he said. Anthony Hunt, a Labour candidate in the Sir Fynwy Torfaen region, said that globally the rise of populism was presenting a challenge, especially in places that had once been industrial areas. “I’m just trying to emphasize that this election is a choice,” he said. “It’s not a referendum on whether you think everything is perfect now. It’s a choice between different visions of the future for Wales and for our communities.” Steps away from the busy outdoor stalls of the Ridley Road market in Dalston, where traders sell fruit, spices and household goods, large placards hang from the sides of apartment blocks urging passers-by to “Vote Green.” Here, in the East London borough of Hackney, many did just that on Thursday, as progressive voters delivered a victory in the mayoral race to the insurgent Green Party candidate, ousting the Labour incumbent. Labour had held the mayoral seat since it was created in 2002, and Hackney’s local council has been run by Labour for almost 25 years. But for many left-wing voters, the cautious centrist Labour government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been a disappointment — leaving space for the Greens, with its new leader, Zack Polanski, to offer an alternative. The borough is one of several traditional Labour strongholds in central London where pollsters had anticipated that the Green Party could win seats from Labour. Zoë Garbett, the Green Party candidate for Hackney mayor, campaigned alongside Mr. Polanski in the borough, which was seen as a critical race for the party. “Across London and the country, people have made it clear that they are desperate for an alternative to this failing Labour government,” Ms. Garbett said shortly after her win was announced. “It’s not old politics parties versus new parties. This is about a system of fear versus a movement of hope.” Nic Boatman, 72, who was walking out of a polling station in Hackney’s Dalston neighborhood on Thursday, said he had confidence in Ms. Garbett. He described his politics as center-left and said his decision to vote for the Greens was a departure from the norm. “I think the Greens are good for local issues here,” he said. “Though I’m not sure if I would vote for them nationally.” Mr. Boatman voted for Labour in the 2024 general election. “So my vote when the next general election comes in a few years time, I’m not sure,” he said, adding with a laugh, “I guess I will go on how I am feeling about it then.” The main threat to Labour in the capital now comes from its left, rather than from its right, according to polling from the firm More in Common. A day before the election, some voters were still undecided. Bradley Wallace, 26, was walking on Kingsland High Street on Wednesday, hand in hand with his partner, past restaurants, cafes and shops. He said he was still making up his mind about how to cast his ballot. “I’ve normally voted Labour in the past, but potentially the Greens this time,” he said. “They resonate more with young people. I think our generation cares more about certain political injustices and world matters.” Climate change, the war in Gaza and social justice are all front of mind, he said. The Green Party has been a vocal opponent of Israel’s military action in the war in Gaza, with its membership formally voting to recognize the country’s policies toward Palestinians as “apartheid” and “genocide.” Other young people in the area had similar sentiments. Heading into the election, Eve Le Maistre, 18, said she felt the values of the Green Party resonated most with her. “They focus on the environment, obviously, and I like that. And I like their stance on Palestine,” she said. While the local elections will give a sense of the broader national sentiment, political experts warn against extrapolating too far from the results. Many people voting in local council elections focus on hyperlocal issues, or see them as a relatively low-risk way to cast a protest vote. Londoners consider policing and crime the most important issues influencing their vote, followed closely by council tax, and affordable housing and planning, according to More in Common. Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENTSome results are starting to trickle in from Scotland, and so far they are good for the pro-independence Scottish National Party. It has won five seats, including Shetland, which the S.N.P. won from the Liberal Democrats in a surprise result. The Liberal Democrats themselves have one seat so far. When I spoke with voters in Hackney this week, many told me they were hungry for change in the borough. Some felt a new party at the helm might deliver just that. But they also pointed to local issues at the heart of their decision-making, like a desire to save the indoor market on Ridley Road in Dalston — an issue that the Greens campaigned on. The Green Party has won the race for Hackney mayor, with its candidate Zoë Garbett beating the Labour incumbent. The London borough has long been a Labour stronghold, with the party holding the mayoral seat since 2002. Garbett’s win is a sign of the inroads the Greens are making in central London as progressive voters express their frustration with Labour. Early results from a set of elections across Britain showed big losses for the Labour Party, led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in his biggest — and most perilous — electoral test since his general election victory in 2024. In Scotland and Wales, people voted on Thursday for seats in their national parliaments, which oversee issues including health and education. In many parts of England, voters elected representatives for local and municipal governments. Northern Ireland, the fourth part of the United Kingdom, did not hold elections. Counting was underway in Scotland and Wales on Friday. The first English results were rolling in and showed significant gains for Reform U.K., the right-wing populist party led by the Brexit campaigner and ally of President Trump, Nigel Farage. Here’s what’s at stake. What did people vote for? In England, about 5,000 seats on municipal councils across 136 areas were on the ballot — though many of those municipal councils had only a third of their members up for election. In addition, six mayoral contests took place. Scotland and Wales have their own parliaments and have autonomy over some policies, including health and education. Elections are normally held every five years. Mr. Starmer himself was not on the ballot, and there were no elections on Thursday for the British Parliament, which is the main legislative body for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. General elections to the British Parliament tend to be held every four or five years. Local elections are often viewed as useful indicators of political sentiment in the meantime, but experts warn against extrapolating from them too far, because voters can behave differently at a general election, when the stakes are higher. What are the implications for Starmer? Mr. Starmer’s popularity has sunk during his two years in power, and voters expressed their dissatisfaction at the ballot box, including in former Labour strongholds in the northwest of England. He is under fire over the appointment of Peter Mandelson, a friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as ambassador to Washington, and speculation about a challenge to his leadership has been building for months. A disastrous set of results could plunge him into peril, but a better-than-expected outcome might give him some breathing space. On Friday, the prime minister took responsibility for the Labour Party’s early losses but insisted he would not step down. His center-left Labour faces a double squeeze. On its left, an invigorated Green Party is winning over some progressive voters, mainly in urban areas. On its right, Reform U.K., led by Mr. Farage, is prospering in working-class regions of northern England, the Midlands and Wales. Reform is on course to be the biggest victor in this election. What are the practical consequences? The Scottish and Welsh Parliaments control policies including health, schools and many aspects of transport and have some tax-raising powers. Local councils in England oversee services from care of the elderly to garbage collection. If the Scottish National Party remains the largest party, its leader, John Swinney, is likely to call for a second referendum on Scottish independence. (The party lost the previous one in 2014.) Although the government in London would probably block that prospect, it could stir the debate about Scotland’s future. Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENTIn his article in The Times of London, John Curtice, Britain’s leading election expert, wrote that “both Reform and the Greens have been able to inflict significant damage on Labour.” If that proves to be the case, it will complicate life for Starmer’s party as it contemplates how to react. One option is to try to tilt to the left to reach out to disgruntled progressive voters who are defecting to the Greens. The other is to double down on Labour’s tough stance on issues like immigration to try win over more right-leaning voters in working class areas that supported Brexit. But it’s hard to do both. It’s bad for Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, but just how bad? Analysts are chewing over the data as it comes in, but here is a verdict from John Curtice, Britain’s best known election expert. “Labour has so far suffered a net loss of 250 seats — half of all those it was trying to defend,” he wrote in The Times of London. “At that rate, the party could, when all the votes have been counted, find itself having suffered over 1,200 net losses.” Still, a loss of 1,200 seats would be well below the 1,850 predicated by some analysts. For more than a year, opinion polls have indicated that Reform U.K., the right-wing populist party, was Britain’s most popular party as its leader, Nigel Farage, imitated President Trump’s anti-immigration agenda and railed against the Labour government. Now, it’s looking increasingly official. In early results from a set of local elections on Thursday, Mr. Farage and his party have emerged victorious in more than 400 council seats across England. The wins have come at the expense of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party and the Conservatives, the parties who have led the country for decades. “Labour are being wiped out by Reform in many of their most traditional areas, and what you’re going to see later on today is the Conservative Party being wiped out in their heartlands,” a beaming Mr. Farage told reporters Friday morning. “It can’t continue to be a fluke or a protest vote,” Mr. Farage said. “I would honestly say you’re witnessing a historic shift in British politics. This is now the most national of all parties.” Results are still being counted in thousands of council races across England and in contests that will determine control of the parliaments in Scotland and Wales. Mr. Farage confidently predicted that Reform would be shown to have fared just as well in those elections when the votes were all tallied. “The best is yet to come,” he said. Despite that optimism, there are still questions about the depth and durability of Reform’s popularity in a country where the traditional two-party system has fractured among at least five parties, including the Greens and the Liberal Democrats. Mr. Farage’s party could end up with less than 30 percent of the overall vote in Thursday’s elections — more than any other but far short of a majority. If that result were mirrored in a general election for Parliament in the coming years, Mr. Farage would not be able to form a government alone and would need to form a coalition with another party. Reform’s hard-line platform on immigration — including promises to deport hundreds of thousands of people — and its opposition to environmental regulation — including pushing for more fossil fuel use — are deeply unpopular in parts of the country. And some political observers believe Thursday’s voting may have been a reflection of anger against Mr. Starmer’s government rather than an affirmative show of support for putting Mr. Farage into power. Still, this is the second set of local elections in a row in which Reform has demonstrated its ability to win a lot of votes. A decade ago, the party was mostly a small, ragtag collection of politicians who campaigned for the United Kingdom to break from Europe. Now it will have more than a thousand sitting elected officials to spread its message. That will be a huge advantage for Mr. Farage in the run-up to the next general election for Parliament, which must be held by 2029. It could also be a test of the party’s governing abilities. “We have professionalized the party,” Mr. Farage said Friday. “We’ve done it at a very, very rapid rate.” That growth has come with controversies. This year, Reform received a donation of nine million pounds (about $12.2 million) from a backer of cryptocurrency based in Thailand. The donation was the largest single political contribution in British history. And some of Reform’s candidates have been forced to apologize or step down after making contentious comments. One Reform candidate in Wales stepped down in March after a picture surfaced that appeared to show him doing a Nazi salute. That same month, Reform suspended a mayoral candidate for describing members of a Jewish neighborhood watch group as “Islamists on horseback.” Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENTAlthough the results of Thursday’s elections will inevitably be viewed as a reflection of national sentiment, it’s worth remembering that many voters choosing their municipal representatives are also swayed by practical issues affecting their immediate area. “To be honest, today I voted on extremely local issues,” said Archit Subramanian, 34, who cast his ballot in the London borough of Hackney. Things like cleaner streets, traffic flow, and crime rates were all front of mind, he said. Traders seem to be taking the local election results in stride, and appear encouraged by Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying he is not going to quit. The pound is up about 0.4 percent against the dollar and the yield on the British government’s 10-year bonds has dropped to just below 4.9 percent. Lower yields mean lower borrowing costs for the government, easing financial pressure. Counting is now underway for elections to the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh and to the Welsh Parliament, known as the Senedd, in Cardiff. Results should start being declared around lunchtime with more coming in through the afternoon and the outcome becoming clear by this evening. Speaking in Havering, a borough in outer London, Nigel Farage said that the town hall was “under new management” after Reform U.K. gained control there of its first London council, at the expense of the Conservatives. “Overall what’s happened is a truly historic shift in British politics,” Farage told reporters. “What Reform are able to do is to win in areas that have always been Conservative, but equally we are proving in a big way we can win in areas that Labour have dominated, frankly, since the end of World War I.” Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENTStarmer’s comments suggest that he intends to fight on for now and will not announce a timetable to give up his job as prime minister, as some critics wish he would. Labour’s losses in the north of England also suggest that one of his rivals, Andy Burnham, the mayor of Manchester, might struggle to mount a challenge against him. To do so, Burnham would first have to win a seat in Parliament. Starmer’s allies would say that the council results so far suggest there are very few places where Labour can rely on public support, although Burnham’s side would argue that it is the prime minister’s deep unpopularity that has brought the party down. Reform claims that it has won control of its first council in London, Havering. It’s in outer London, a part of the capital always thought to be better territory for Nigel Farage’s right-wing populist party than inner London, where voters tend to vote for more progressive parties. Gains were made mainly at the expense of the Conservative Party, and Farage is expected to arrive in Havering soon to talk to reporters. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Friday morning that there was “no sugarcoating” his party’s losses. “That hurts, and it should hurt, and I take responsibility,” he told reporters. But he also added: “Tough days like this don’t weaken my resolve to deliver the change that I promised. They strengthen my resolve to do so.” A couple of Labour’s losses have come in areas that elected some of its leading figures to Parliament. In Wigan, where the lawmaker is Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, Labour lost all 22 of the seats it defended to Reform U.K. In Tameside, Greater Manchester, an area represented by the former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, Labour lost 16 of 17 seats, also to Reform. In places with close connections to the Starmer government, voters seem to be punishing Labour. Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe Tories have not had a good night of results but there is one silver lining for the down-on-its-luck party: They have taken back control of the council in London’s Westminster, the seat of the British government. The Tories had controlled the council for decades but lost it to Labour in 2022. John Healey, the British defense secretary, acknowledged the bad news for his party in an interview with the BBC, saying that “too many good Labour people” had lost their seats. “I know that national sentiment has played a part in making their campaigns harder,” he said. Polls ahead of the election showed Prime Minister Keir Starmer as one of the least popular British leaders in modern history. Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT