British polling stations opened yesterday in local elections set to heap more pressure on beleaguered British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and showcase the rise of hard-right and left-wing populists.
Polls opened at 7am across Scotland, England and Wales in the ballot that is Starmer’s biggest electoral test since his July 2024 general election landslide victory ended 14 years of Conservative Party rule.
Opinion polls predict grim results for the Labour Party, which could amplify calls for Starmer, 63, to resign or face a long-rumored party leadership challenge.
Photo: AFP
The prime minister and his wife voted at a polling station near parliament in Westminster.
Nigel Farage’s anti-immigrant Reform UK and the left-wing Greens, led by self-described eco-populist Zack Polanski, are expected to be the main beneficiaries of widespread disillusionment.
University College London associate professor of politics Melanie Garson said the vote was a “huge barometer for how the country is feeling about this political establishment.”
“We’ve got, for the first time, significant pressure on the main political parties across every single council,” she said.
Some results are expected overnight after polls close at 10pm, but most would not come until later today.
About 5,000 local council seats, out of 16,000, are up for grabs across England, while in Wales and Scotland voters would elect new devolved parliaments.
Starmer swept to power following 14 years of largely chaotic Conservative rule defined by austerity, Brexit and the tanking of the economy under former British prime minister Liz Truss.
However, critics say he has swerved from one policy misstep to another, and he has been embroiled in a scandal over Peter Mandelson, who was sacked as British ambassador to Washington over his links to US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Starmer has also failed to fulfill his main promise of spurring economic growth, with impatient Britons still struggling with a cost-of-living crisis, including from high energy prices.
“The change hasn’t been delivered, or change that has been delivered has been negative,” Garson said.
Starmer on Wednesday said there was a “clear choice” at the ballot box.
“Unity or division. Progress versus the politics of anger,” he said.
Labour has also fought back, unearthing racist remarks by some Reform candidates and anti-Semitic comments by certain Green hopefuls.
However, Starmer is one of the most unpopular prime ministers ever, and surveys suggest Labour would lose control of the devolved Welsh government in Cardiff for the first time since Wales got its own parliament 27 years ago.
A More in Common poll published on Tuesday projected Reform is neck-and-neck with the pro-independence Plaid Cymru in Labour’s former heartland.
Labour also fears a drubbing in Scotland, where the Scottish National Party is expected to extend its 19-year control of the devolved parliament in Edinburgh.
YouGov has predicted Reform could force Labour into third place there.
“The message is clear: If you want real change, you’d better vote for it, and we go into tomorrow feeling pretty optimistic about our prospects,” Farage said.
Labour also looks set for big losses in London as the Greens pick up disaffected left-wingers in urban areas with a pro-Gaza message.
Pollster Robert Hayward has predicted the UK’s ruling party could lose about 1,850 of about 2,550 local authority seats it is defending.
Hayward has tipped Reform to take 1,550 seats from Labour and Kemi Badenoch’s right-wing Conservatives — mostly in white, working-class areas. The Conservatives are also bracing for the loss of traditional strongholds.
“The two-party era has moved into a multiparty era,” Badenoch told PA news agency. “But the fact is none of these new parties or Labour have a plan for the country.”
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