Brutal Yorkshire verdict for Labour in 'Keir Starmer referendum': Comment
While poor local election results are nothing new for incumbent governments, the stark nature of Labour’s brutal losses up and down the UK now makes it almost impossible to conceive that Sir Keir Starmer will lead his party into the next election.
Results in Sheffield were something of a microcosm of Labour’s miserable national performance as Reform mopped up votes from the right and the Greens did likewise from the left, with council leader Tom Hunt among those to lose his seat to the latter camp.
In Barnsley, where Reform is set to take control of the council in a totemic result, long-standing Labour leader Sir Stephen Houghton accurately said that Reform had successfully managed to turn the local elections into “a Keir Starmer referendum”.
"Some people who never vote have turned up because they want to make their protest against the Government and Keir Starmer,” he said.
Speaking on Friday morning when the full extent of Labour’s losses were not yet clear, Sir Keir insisted he would be fighting on.
He acknowledged his Government had made “unnecessary mistakes” in office but added: “I’m not going to walk away and plunge the country into chaos.”
It is unclear though for how long such a position can feasibly hold.
His best defence for the time being is that there is no clear immediate internal challenger to him as Prime Minister, with Andy Burnham, Labour’s most popular alternative according to public polling, outside of Parliament.
Having effectively won their ‘Starmer referendum’, Reform now looks to be well on course to be the biggest party in Parliament at the next election.
Reform’s swathes of new councillors across Yorkshire and the North are evidence of the party’s growing political momentum.