Early U.K. Election Results Point to Big Losses for Starmer’s Party . Surveys had indicated that Reform U.K. could win 1,400 or more council seats in England, drastically increasing the party’s presence in local politics.

 

Live Updates: Early U.K. Election Results Point to Big Losses for Starmer’s Party

Votes are still being tallied in thousands of local races across Britain, but hundreds of candidates from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party have already lost their council seats.

 

Michael D. Shear

Updated

May 8, 2026, 2:13 a.m. ET38 minutes ago

Michael D. Shear Reporting from London

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/05/08/world/uk-local-elections-results

 

Here’s the latest.

Early results from Thursday’s elections offered grim news for Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain as voters rejected many Labour Party candidates and appeared to deliver a scathing verdict on his 22 months in office.

 

In returns announced before dawn on Friday, Labour had already lost nearly 250 seats on municipal councils across England, while the right-wing populist Reform U.K. party headed by Nigel Farage had gained more than 300 seats. About 5,000 council seats are being contested in total.

 

Most of the votes are still being counted, including in contests that will determine the makeup of the parliaments in Scotland and Wales, and the shape of the councils in other communities across England.

 

The results are expected to underline the fracturing of Britain’s electorate. Multiple parties are challenging the traditional dominance of Mr. Starmer’s Labour Party and the Conservative Party, also known as the Tories, which led the country for 14 years before Labour’s general election victory in 2024.

 

Public opinion surveys have for months predicted a wave of bad news for Labour in the elections. Polls show the prime minister as one of the least popular British leaders in modern history. If the polls are right, Labour could lose as many as 2,000 local council seats in England and relinquish its dominant position in Wales, where the party has prevailed in every general election since 1922.

 

The elections could also represent a critical moment for Mr. Farage, an ally of President Trump’s. Reform U.K. has surged in popularity in the last two years and Mr. Farage is hoping that success in Thursday’s elections will improve his party’s chances of a much more significant victory in a general election, which has to take place by 2029.

 

In early returns Friday morning, candidates for the left-wing Green Party and the centrist Liberal Democrats also made gains, adding to pressure on Mr. Starmer and further eroding the political clout of the Tories. The Greens have so far added 26 council seats and the Liberal Democrats have added 35 seats.

 

Here’s what else to know:

 

Starmer’s unpopularity: Since winning a landslide in 2024, Mr. Starmer has struggled through 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.

 

Early hours: The full picture from Thursday’s voting will not be known until later in the day. Labour is expected to lose as many as 2,000 council seats, and a smaller final loss could offer some solace to Mr. Starmer and his allies. If the party ends up losing more seats than expected and does especially poorly in Scotland and Wales, it will increase the political pressure on the prime minister.

 

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 them in power there again. Polls before the elections suggested the S.N.P. would win the highest number of seats in the Scottish parliament, although it would likely fall short of an outright majority.

 

Populists’ rise: Surveys had indicated that Reform U.K. could win 1,400 or more council seats in England, drastically increasing the party’s presence in local politics. A significantly lower result could indicate that the party’s aggressive anti-immigration message, as well as questions about Mr. Farage’s acceptance of donations from the cryptocurrency industry, are not playing well with voters.

 

Labour in Wales: Voters could end Labour’s control of the Welsh Parliament, known as the Senedd, for the first time since Wales gained its own political assembly.