LONDON(National Times)- British Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised on Saturday he would \u201clisten to voters\u201d after his Labour party received a historic drubbing in local and regional elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A disillusioned electorate backed hard-right and nationalist parties in Thursday\u2019s ballots \u2014 Starmer\u2019s biggest electoral test since Labour ousted the Conservatives in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe right lesson is to listen to voters,\u201d but it \u201cdoesn\u2019t mean tacking right or left\u201d, Starmer, who has faced calls to resign, wrote in The Guardian newspaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The anti-immigrant Reform UK party led by populist politician Nigel Farage made gains across England, Scotland and Wales \u2014 though Scottish and Welsh parties took the biggest share of seats in those elections. With almost all votes tallied, the results were grim for Labour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
British PM enlists help of party heavyweights Harriet Harman and Gordon Brown<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clive Betts, the party\u2019s joint longest-serving MP, urged the cabinet to take decisive action on Starmer\u2019s premiership. \u201cI think there\u2019s now a responsibility on the cabinet to talk to Keir and to recognise, as they obviously are picking up on the doorstep, that this can\u2019t carry on forever,\u201d he told BBC Radio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere has to be a timetable. There has to be a way to actually bring in a new leader in a proper and constructive manner in the next few months,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Mistakes\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Betts, who is not considered one of Starmer\u2019s obvious critics, is among numerous Labour lawmakers to publicly suggest he ought to resign or set out a plan for doing so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Starmer has vowed to remain as Britain\u2019s prime minister but admitted the party had failed to sustain the public\u2019s trust that it was doing enough to deliver change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His government had \u201cmade unnecessary mistakes\u201d and failed to give the public \u201chope\u201d, he wrote. He also enlisted the help of party heavyweights Harriet Harman and former prime minister Gordon Brown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harman, a former minister and deputy party leader, will take on an advisor role aimed at combatting violence against women and girls, while Brown will become a special envoy on global finance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the scale of the electoral mauling no immediate move was made to challenge his leadership and cabinet colleagues appeared to publicly rally round. But while he has been granted a reprieve, \u201cthere\u2019s just literally no example, zero example of a prime minister recovering from the kind of opinion poll ranking he has now,\u201d Robert Ford, professor of political science at the University of Manchester, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe public have decided they don\u2019t like it. I doubt they\u2019re going to change their mind,\u201d he said. Starmer is expected to attempt a reset of his leadership in a major speech on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This will be followed up on Wednesday with the traditional State Opening of Parliament when King Charles III outlines legislation the government is preparing for the next parliamentary session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wales loss<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The election results are particularly crushing for Labour in Wales where they lost control of the devolved government for the first time since the parliament in Cardiff was established 27 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nationalists Plaid Cymru, which wants Welsh independence in the long-term, is now the biggest party with Reform second and Labour third. In Scotland, the Scottish National Party remains the biggest party but failed to get a majority \u2014 winning six fewer seats than in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US President Donald Trump congratulated SNP leader and Scottish First Minister John Swinney, calling him a \u201cgood man\u201d on his Truth Social platform. He made no reference to Starmer with whom relations have become strained over support for the president\u2019s war with Iran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON(National Times)- British Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised on Saturday he would \u201clisten to voters\u201d after his Labour party received a historic drubbing in local and regional elections. A disillusioned electorate backed hard-right and nationalist parties in Thursday\u2019s ballots \u2014 Starmer\u2019s biggest electoral test since Labour ousted the Conservatives in 2024. \u201cThe right lesson is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n