Awkward moment Starmer confronted with text from key ally on air

Sir Keir Starmer went on the defensive after a journalist revealed a member of his “top team” held the Prime Minister responsible for Labour‘s disastrous local election results. Sir Keir was left squirming after Sky News Political Editor Beth Rigby said she received a message from one of his allies saying he was “the reason that Labour risks handing the country to Reform”.

In response, the beleaguered PM said: “What I say to that is we won a landslide victory in July 2024, I led our party to that victory, that is a five-year mandate to change the country. Yes there are difficult conditions, the inheritance was terrible, the international context is very, very difficult but we need to inject that hope and convince people that things can and will get better and that’s why in coming days, I will set out the further steps that we will take.”

Despite yet more pressure piling on the Labour leader, he insisted he would not be stepping down.

“I’m not going to walk away and plunge the country into chaos,” he said in the interview.

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK made gains across the country as hundreds of Labour councillors were voted out.

Mr Farage said the results showed a “truly historic shift in British politics” away from the old era of Labour and Conservative domination, vowing “the best is yet to come” for his party.

Sir Keir faces further heavy losses as vote counting continues throughout Friday in both English local elections and contests for the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd.

He described the results as “really tough” and said his party has “made unnecessary mistakes”.

Sir Keir earlier said “tough days like this don’t weaken my resolve to deliver the change that I promised”.

When asked whether he was feeling upset on Friday morning, he said: “I am feeling very much for the brilliant candidates, the brilliant councillors, the brilliant representatives that we have lost, because I know for them, they have put so much into their communities, so much of their life into public service.

“So I’m thinking about them and thinking about what we need to do to rebuild and to take our country forward.”

In Wales, Labour is expected to lose the national vote for the first time in more than a century while the SNP appears likely to remain the largest party in Scotland after 19 years in power.

After 41 of of 136 English councils had declared full results, Labour had lost control in eight — losing a whopping 204 seats.

Its losses included Wandsworth and Westminster in London, and Tameside, which includes Angela Rayner’s Greater Manchester constituency.

Reform has gained 275 councillors and won control of of Newcastle-under-Lyme from the Conservatives.

The results have been mixed for the Tories — positives include regaining Wesminster from Labour, despite losses elsewhere.