‘Leader of the pack’: What next as Reform UK makes huge election gains?

Keir Starmer’s Labour has suffered a humiliating blow as the hard right makes sweeping gains.Nigel Farage's Reform UK party has seen huge gains in England's local elections [AFP]Published On 8 May 2026Glasgow, United Kingdom – Voters in England’s local council elections have delivered a damning verdict of Labour as it took hundreds of seats from the UK’s governing party, in what is seen as another major blow for Prime Minister Keir Starmer.While many results from Thursday’s municipal poll in England have yet to be declared, the populist right-wing Reform UK party have made sweeping gains at the expense of Labour, which has so far lost some 300 councillors across the 136 competing English councils.An excess of 5,000 English council seats were up for grabs in the contest, which Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, said was seeing “Labour … being wiped out by Reform in many of their most traditional areas”. Reform UK has also gained more than 500 seats and four councils as it looks to mount a serious challenge to Labour in the next UK general election, expected to be held by 2029.“Reform will understandably celebrate these results from their campaign, but will have to turn their attention to the more challenging business of governing,” James Mitchell, a professor at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Social and Political Science, told Al Jazeera.“Gaining a base in local government can be an important base from which to mount a challenge at the next election, but it comes with confronting and dealing with problems … Much will depend on how Reform performs in local government.”The Labour Party, which is viewed as shifting to the right under Starmer’s leadership, despite traditionally being on the left of the political spectrum, has suffered a series of political travails since it battered the incumbent Conservatives in the 2024 UK general election.Indeed, from dealing with internal challenges to his authority following a series of backbench Labour rebellions to the political fallout over the prime minister’s ill-fated decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as British ambassador to Washington, Starmer has cut a beleaguered figure for much of his premiership.This latest setback will only sharpen the knives of those in the parliamentary Labour Party who wish to see Starmer gone, says Mitchell, particularly when hundreds of MPs risk losing their jobs in the next election.“Keir Starmer’s authority had been damaged before these elections … and there must come a point when the self-interest of Labour MPs make a challenge [to his premiership] happen,” he noted. “Recovery becomes ever less likely for the prime minister with each defeat and setback.”Election staff count votes during the Havering local council election on May 8, 2026, in Romford, England [Dan Kitwood/Getty Images] (Getty)While Reform UK are emerging as the clear winners in England’s local elections, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party are also making inroads.The Greens, which have been enjoying a surge in popularity since Jewish-born, pro-Palestinian London Assembly Member Zack Polanski was appointed leader in 2025, have made more modest gains than expected, but are still using this as a springboard for national gains.“Green politics is grassroots, community politics,” said Nick Hartley, a Newcastle-based Green Party councillor, to Al Jazeera. “What we have seen these past two years in Newcastle is the power of people coming together to challenge what’s unfair and to build local action. Reform UK, backed by billionaires and speaking from podiums, are all about taking power for the top. They do not have our communities at their heart.”Indeed, England’s Green Party voters remain deeply troubled by the rise of Reform UK and their anti-immigration platform. Just days before the elections, Reform provoked a political storm when it pledged to establish migrant detention centres in areas controlled by the Greens if it wins the next UK general election.“Their schtick is all designed to be incendiary and divisive,” Laura Hind, a supporter of the Greens in Yorkshire, told Al Jazeera. “What they stand for doesn’t align with anything I believe in, and I think that, despite all their hot air, they lack actual … policies.”Yet, as Starmer faces a fight to stay on as party leader, Reform UK’s seismic gains in England – which, as the largest of the UK’s four constituent nations, accounts for more than 80 percent of the country’s total population – has put the party front and centre of a volatile domestic political landscape.“The results certainly look as if the message we’ve been getting from opinion polls for months now is spot-on,” stated Tim Bale, a politics professor at Queen Mary University of London, to Al Jazeera.“Reform is currently leader of the pack in an increasingly multiparty system and, just as importantly, top dog on the right of British politics, having taken seats from the Conservatives, as well as Labour.”