UK PM Starmer vows to fight on after local polls drubbing

AFP | London

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

Keir Starmer vowed to carry on as UK prime minister after taking responsibility for grim local election results that saw the hard right make big gains as disillusioned Britons go off mainstream parties.

“I’m not going to walk away and plunge the country into chaos,” Starmer insisted, after his ruling Labour party lost hundreds of councillors in England and admitted defeat in Wales -- one of its iconic heartlands.

Labour was also braced for difficult results in the devolved parliament in Scotland, where the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) said it was on course to extend its 19 years in power.

“The results are tough, they are very tough, and there’s no sugarcoating it,” Starmer, 63, said.

“We have lost brilliant Labour representatives across the country, these are people who put so much into their communities, so much into our party.

“And that hurts, and it should hurt, and I take responsibility,” he added.

The ballot was the biggest electoral test for Starmer since Labour ousted the Conservatives following 14 years in power in a landslide election victory in 2024.

He has since failed to fulfil his main promise of spurring economic growth and has been plagued by policy missteps, with impatient Britons still suffering a cost-of-living crisis now flocking to insurgent parties.

Nigel Farage’s anti-immigrant Reform UK party had gained 641 seats while Labour had lost 460 across 73 of the 136 English councils to announce results by mid-afternoon yesterday.