Yorkshire Labour leader calls for Starmer to go as pressure intensifies over election losses
Sir Keir Starmer is facing mounting pressure following a tough night in the polls for Labour - as one Yorkshire group leader has called for him to resign.
In the Hull election, the Labour Party only held onto one of their eight seats that were up for grabs. The group’s deputy leader, Coun Sharon Hofman, retained her seat in the Bricknell ward.
But the group’s leader Coun Darren Hale said the PM should ‘do the right thing’ and resign.
He told the BBC: “I think Keir Starmer needs to look at these results, reflect upon them and do the right thing and go, because in a sense he owes it to the party.
“No one is bigger than the Labour Party and in a sense he’s failed to get the message across and this is serious for the Labour Party.
“The Labour Party has got to act.”
Early results saw Labour haemorrhage hundreds of councillors and eight local authorities across England while Reform, the Greens and Liberal Democrats all made gains.
The Prime Minister faces further heavy losses as vote counting continues throughout Friday in both English local elections and contests for the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd.
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.
Sir Keir has already faced speculation about his leadership, with the Times reporting Energy Secretary Ed Miliband had urged the Prime Minister to set out a timetable for his departure.
But Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy urged his party not to play “pass the parcel” with the leadership in response to the election results.
Labour sources pointed to poor local election results under previous prime ministers, including Sir Tony Blair who lost 1,100 councillors in 1999 but went on to win re-election in a landslide in 2001.
Meanwhile, Mr Farage hailed early results from Thursday’s local election as a sign his party was on course for victory at a general election that is still up to three years away.
A jubilant Mr Farage heralded a “historic change in British politics,” telling reporters “there is no more left-right” as his outfit was “scoring stunning percentages in traditional old Labour areas”.
The Reform leader compared the substantial gains to clearing Becher’s Brook, a famously difficult jump in the Grand National.
“If we cleared Becher’s Brook and landed well, we go on to win the Grand National.
“What is very clear to me is that our voters will stick with us now all the way through.”
With 38 of the 136 councils declaring their full results in the early hours of Friday, Reform’s gains exceeded 230 seats while Labour had lost more than 170.
Mr Farage’s party also took control of its first council of this set of contests, nabbing Newcastle-under-Lyme from the Conservatives.