In brief
- UK Labour's historic majority has rapidly narrowed into a battle for political survival.
- Right-wing populist party Reform UK's sweeping electoral gains have redrawn the UK's fractured political map.
United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who entered office with a confident majority, is now a leader who looks on the ropes, as he fights internal, and external battles.
Less than two years after Starmer led Labour to one of the largest parliamentary majorities in the UK's modern history, his authority is being tested by local election losses, internal rebellion and a public attitude that has hardened against him.
More than 30 Labour MPs have called for him to quit or set out a timetable for his departure, after the party suffered the worst local election defeats for a governing party in more than three decades.
Across 136 English councils, the weekend's electoral test has exposed the scale of Labour's erosion, with Nigel Farage's Reform UK winning more than 1,450 council seats. The right-wing populist party captured former Labour heartlands including Sunderland and Barnsley, key Conservative territories such as Essex and Suffolk, and made major breakthroughs in Scotland and Wales.
At home, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has publicly backed his UK counterpart, telling ABC radio on Monday: "He is a friend of mine, and I hope that Keir Starmer continues to serve as prime minister of the United Kingdom.
"We've dealt with four prime ministers of Great Britain since I was elected as prime minister, and the revolving door of leaders does not lead to stability."
For Starmer, the question is now no longer how to govern from strength — but how to retain power at all.
The landslide
Labour's 2024 general election victory was initially hailed as an earthquake in British politics.
After 14 years of Conservative rule, voters delivered a decisive repudiation of a government weakened by the enduring fallout of Brexit, Boris Johnson's "partygate" scandal, Liz Truss' market-shaking mini-budget and years of economic stagnation.
Labour secured 411 seats, gaining 209 from its 2019 total — marking its first national victory in 19 years and returning the centre-left party to power for the first time since Tony Blair.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives, also known as the Tories, collapsed to 121 seats, losing 244 in one of the most catastrophic defeats in modern British electoral history.
Starmer campaigned on promises to expand the economy, lower illegal immigration and reduce waiting lists in the National Health Service, presenting Labour as a disciplined corrective to years of Conservative instability.
But for many Britons, the result was less an ideological embrace of Labour than a punitive rejection of Conservative chaos.
The UK has faced low economic growth since the 2007-2009 global financial crisis, a strained post-pandemic economy, worsening inequality and deep post-Brexit political fractures.
Around 13.4 million people (20 per cent) in the UK are in relative poverty after housing costs were deducted, including four million children, according to a government report published in May. This refers to people living in households with incomes below 60 per cent of the median population income.
While Labour's victory delivered power, it also inherited extraordinary public expectation.
The unravelling
That expectation has since collided with political reality.
Starmer's government has been increasingly hampered by policy U-turns, controversies over judgement and growing perceptions that he has struggled to deliver the scale of change voters were promised.
Among the most politically damaging episodes was the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the United States. Reports recently emerged claiming he failed developed security vetting in early 2025 due to past associations with convicted child sex offender, the late Jeffrey Epstein. He was sacked in September 2025 and later replaced by career diplomat Christian Turner.
Domestically, Labour's proposed 20 per cent inheritance tax on some family farms — widely labelled the "tractor tax" or "farms tax" — became another significant point of tension.
After months of defending the policy, the government partially reversed course, exempting around half the farms initially expected to be affected. That followed sustained tractor protests around Parliament Square, mounting rural backlash and pressure from Labour MPs representing newly won semi-rural constituencies.
Polls show dramatic disapproval.
Recent YouGov polling places Starmer's popularity at just 19 per cent, with 61 per cent of Britons viewing him negatively and only 18 per cent neutral, leaving him with net favourability ratings between negative 40 and 50.
Public frustration has increasingly transcended Westminster, with chants of "Keir Starmer's a w----r" reportedly surfacing from football stadiums to January's world darts championship.
Now, Labour's devastating local election losses have transformed those frustrations into an unequivocal message.
Labour MP Angela Rayner has warned the party may be facing its "last chance" to change direction, while her Australian-born colleague Catherine West has openly urged Cabinet intervention and threatened to trigger a leadership challenge herself.
Under Labour rules, such a challenge would require 81 MPs — 20 per cent of the parliamentary party — to unite behind a single candidate.
In response, Starmer is attempting a broad political reset.
He's expected to argue during a speech on Monday that "incremental change won't cut it" and that his government "will be defined by rebuilding our relationship and by putting Britain at the heart of Europe".
A Conservative recovery?
Labour's decline has not produced a straightforward Conservative resurgence.
The Conservatives also endured punishing results in the latest local elections, losing about 500 councillors and surrendering major territory to Reform UK.
UK opposition leader Kemi Badenoch has pointed to symbolic gains in London, including Westminster and Wandsworth, as evidence of Conservative recovery. But those victories were overshadowed by severe losses elsewhere.
Reform ended the Conservatives' 25-year hold over Essex, captured Suffolk and Newcastle-under-Lyme, and made major inroads across southern England.
In Wales, the Conservatives' representation was slashed by roughly two-thirds. In Scotland, they recorded their worst-ever Holyrood result, losing their status as the principal opposition force.
With Labour haemorrhaging support and the Conservatives still burdened by their own collapse, Reform UK is capitalising on public disillusionment towards both major parties. The Greens and Liberal Democrats are also making targeted advances in urban and regional centres.
If Starmer were to be removed, the UK would be on its seventh prime minister in a decade — the highest level of political turnover in nearly 200 years.
— With additional reporting by the Associated Press.
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