Greens win control of their third London council
The Greens have toppled a huge Labour majority in Lewisham to take control of their third London council.
The party won a majority by winning 30 of the first 39 results to be announced, with Labour taking just nine.
The successful Green candidates included Liam Shrivastava in Crofton Park Ward, although he will give up his council seat after winning the Lewisham mayoral election on Friday.
Labour had 50 seats on the previous council and the Greens only four, and Lewisham became the 12th London council where Sir Keir Starmer’s party lost control, with Hackney and Waltham Forest also being taken by the Greens.
The Conservatives won Westminster, while Barnet, Brent, Enfield, Haringey, Lambeth, Newham, Southwark and Wandsworth all slipped into no overall control.
One of Labour’s most powerful figures outside Westminster, the West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin, has warned the government it faces “oblivion” at the next general election without a renewed “boldness” from ministers.
Brabin described the local election losses as “catastrophic” after Labour lost overall control of several councils in her region to a Reform UK surge, including Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Calderdale and Kirklees. Labour had led many of these authorities for decades.
Brabin stopped short of calling for Keir Starmer to stand aside but said:
“This is a catastrophic set of results for the Labour Party. Here in West Yorkshire, and across the country, we’ve lost dedicated councillors who have served their communities tirelessly without self interest."
“I’m proud to have worked with many of them over the last five years to deliver better transport, new homes and more jobs for the people we represent.
“I remain committed to building a stronger region, and will work with the newly elected leaders of our councils to deliver for people and communities across West Yorkshire.
“Two years on from a landslide general election victory, the Labour party is facing oblivion if these results are repeated. We cannot waste the opportunity of Labour being in government.”
A summary of today's developments
Labour MP Catherine West said she will seek to trigger a leadership contest if a cabinet minister does not launch a challenge to the prime minister by Monday. West, previously a junior Foreign Office minister, said that if no leadership hopeful makes it known that the cabinet will seek to remove Keir Starmer, she will try to get the necessary signatures herself to trigger a leadership contest.
Welsh Labour has announced Ken Skates will serve as its interim leader. Eluned Morgan resigned from the role yesterday after losing her seat in the Senedd. Skates will serve as leader until a timetable is set for a full leadership election, the party said.
Labour has lost control of Bradford council to continue the bad news for the party in Yorkshire. Reform UK cannot take control but were expected to be the largest party after taking 29 of the first 75 seats to be declared, with Conservatives on 18 and Labour on 15.
Labour has lost control of Lambeth council, pushing the party out of power in the London borough for the first time since 2006. Labour won 26 of the 63 seats in the face of a Green party surge. The Greens won 29 seats, becoming the largest party, with Liberal Democrats on eight.
The majority of Labour members say they do not believe Keir Starmer can turn around the party’s fortunes, while 45% say the prime minister should step down. Andy Burnham, was the first preference for 42% of members, who were asked to rank their preferred successor. Several Labour MPs – especially those who are close to Burnham – told the Guardian they would like to see a timetable for Starmer to stand down in an orderly and dignified way, including allowing the mayor of Manchester time to seek a parliamentary seat.
MPs from Labour’s left are expected to urge Ed Miliband to consider a leadership bid in the coming days, as Keir Starmer faced the prospect of a definite challenge from his MPs next week.
MPs from Labour’s left are expected to urge Ed Miliband to consider a leadership bid in the coming days, as Keir Starmer faced the prospect of a definite challenge from his MPs next week, writes Peter Walker and Jessica Elgot.
Following grim results for Labour in elections on Thursday, former minister Catherine West said that if no cabinet ministers went public by Monday, she would launch a bid to end the impasse.
It comes after a series of Labour backbenchers called on Saturday for Starmer to set a timetable for his departure from Downing Street. The prime minister has reiterated his determination to stay on, saying on Saturday that a change of leadership would “plunge the country into chaos”.
A number of Labour MPs from across the party support Andy Burnham replacing Starmer. However, the Greater Manchester mayor requires a time-consuming and uncertain byelection to re-enter parliament.
There has been speculation that Wes Streeting might be considering a move next week, although this has been vehemently denied by the health secretary’s allies, who point to his public support for the PM on Friday.
With any route for Burnham back to the commons still unclear, dozens of backbenchers from the party’s left are now preparing to turn to Miliband. The group is expected to urge the energy secretary to step in and prevent a Streeting coronation, believing that Angela Rayner, Starmer’s former deputy, does not have the necessary support.
MPs were weighing their options a day after Labour’s disastrous election results, with some backbenchers adding their voices to calls for the prime minister to go. But matters began moving at speed, with West, a north London MP who was sacked by Starmer as a Foreign Office minister last year, telling the BBC that in the event of no other challengers, she would ask colleagues on Monday to back her as a way of starting a contest.
Labour MP Catherine Atkinson told Sky News her fellow MP Catherine West is “on a different page than the majority of Labour MPs” after the latter vowed to challenge Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership if no cabinet minister launches a bid to oust the PM by Monday.
And Preet Kaur Gill MP, a Parliamentary Private Secretary to a cabinet minister, has also weighed in on West’s ultimatum.
She wrote on X: “With respect to Catherine West, leadership contests and public ultimatums are not what the country needs right now.
“The public expects government to govern, not endless internal theatrics.
“The priority should be getting on with the job the British people elected Labour to do.”
Aspire wins Tower Hamlets council election
Aspire has won the Tower Hamlets council election to secure an overall majority in the only London borough where it stands.
The party secured 23 of the first 31 seats to be declared in east London, enough to take back control.
Aspire won 24 seats in the last council election in 2022, but later lost two to defections.
Labour has won four seats, the Greens two and the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives one each.
Aspire leader Lutfur Rahman was re-elected as Tower Hamlets mayor on Friday with almost 39% of the votes.
Reform UK Scotland’s new MSPs have elected the party’s leader and deputy leader.
The party’s Holyrood group confirmed Thomas Kerr as its deputy while backing Lord Malcolm Offord, who had already been appointed leader by Nigel Farage, for the top spot.
Kerr is a former Tory councillor who defected to Reform last year and on Friday was confirmed as one of the party’s 17 MSPs at Holyrood.
Welsh Labour sources expect newly appointed interim leader Ken Skates to launch an internal review into the party’s catastrophic loss in the Senedd elections.
The Guardian has been told blaming others for the defeat is not “realistic” considering the scale of the defeat.
A senior Welsh Labour source told the Guardian: “It’s been catastrophic. That’s what Eluned [Morgan] said in her concession speech and it’s true. It’s going to take time for the party to come to terms with the fact that over a century of Labour rule in Wales has ended. And we can’t shy away from that fact.
“There are some who are trying to steer the blame here and there, but that’s just not realistic for the scale of the ground we’ve lost. Voters have sent us a message and we need to be serious about rebuilding their trust. If we don’t take that seriously then we’re lost. We have to look closely at what we’ve been doing in Wales and the polices we’ve been implementing and find the root of the disconnect. This was an election about Wales and Welsh voters didn’t support us.
“We lost the confidence of voters as the progressive anti-Reform vote. We heard people on the doors saying they’d usually vote Labour but wanted to stop Reform. Every vote counted and our votes went elsewhere. We need to attract voters back to Labour and that won’t happen overnight.
“Now we have to face the next four years of being the third party in Wales. That will take some adjustment. We will hold Plaid to account on the many promises they made and stand by the concerns we raised during the campaign over affordability and delivery.
“With a new interim leader appointed we’ll do what we can to start looking at what went wrong and how we can reconnect with the communities our movement was born in. That won’t be easy, but it needs to be our priority. We know Ken Skates is committed to an internal review including speaking with the wider party including candidates, councillors, MPs, MSs, the trade unions and most importantly the electorate.
“We faced a challenging environment of an incumbent party in both Wales and Westminster as well as at council level. Voters raised serious issues about NHS access, roads, local services, cost of living and trust in politics. UK Labour, Welsh Labour’s record in government and local delivery pressures all played a part in the decisions voters made. We need to understand these pressures and make sure any future Welsh offer feels like practical change.”
Updated
West vows to seek to trigger Labour leadership contest
Labour MP Catherine West said she will seek to trigger a leadership contest if a cabinet minister does not launch a challenge to the prime minister by Monday.
West, previously a junior Foreign Office minister, said that if no leadership hopeful makes it known that the cabinet will seek to remove Keir Starmer, she will try to get the necessary signatures herself to trigger a leadership contest.
The MP for or Hornsey and Friern Barnet told the BBC’s PM programme: “I’m putting people on notice – if I don’t hear by Monday morning of some leadership hopefuls, I will be asking everybody in the Parliamentary Labour Party to put a name against my name, because we need to get this ball rolling.
“But my preferred option is for the Cabinet to do a reshuffle within itself, where there’s plenty of talent and for Keir to be given a different role, which he might enjoy, perhaps an international role, and then for others to come to the fore, who can communicate the message, who are very able, so we can have minimum fuss.”
Updated
Croydon has remained under no overall control after both Labour and Conservatives failed to win the south London borough.
Labour won 30 seats and Conservatives 27, both short of the 36 needed for a majority.
Labour came into the election with 34 seats and Conservatives on 33, but the Greens made gains and ended with eight, while two Reform UK and two Liberal Democrat candidates were elected.
Labour loses control of Bradford council
Labour has lost control of Bradford council to continue the bad news for the party in Yorkshire.
Reform UK cannot take control but were expected to be the largest party after taking 29 of the first 75 seats to be declared, with Conservatives on 18 and Labour on 15.
Reform UK ended more than 50 years of Labour rule in Barnsley and also took Calderdale and Wakefield from Labour, which also lost control of Leeds.
Keir Starmer has thanked Ken Skates for “stepping up” as interim Labour leader in Wales.
The PM said a period of “necessary reflection and rebuilding” was required after the disastrous elections for Labour which saw First Minister Baroness Eluned Morgan lose her seat.
Starmer said: “Thank you to Ken Skates for stepping up to provide leadership for Labour in Wales and the Senedd as we begin a period of necessary reflection and rebuilding.
“Ken is a talented and experienced MS, and I know he will do a fantastic job bringing Welsh Labour together and holding the new government to account for working people.”
Starmer is facing increasing pressure to set a date for his departure after elections across much of the country resulted in massive losses for his ruling Labour party.
With the bulk of results now counted after voting on Thursday, Labour had lost more than 1,400 representatives from English councils, the local government structures that deliver many neighbourhood services.
Updated
More potentially bad news for the government: the National Education Union, the largest teaching union in England,isto hold a formal strike ballot later this year over pay and school funding.
The NEU’s national executive on Saturday voted to go ahead with the ballot over fears that teachers’ pay in England’s state schoolswill not keepupwith inflation. But theunion opted to delay opening the strike ballot until autumn after the start of the next school year.
Daniel Kebede, the NEU’s general secretary, said: “The cracks in our education system are obvious to all. Schools are running on empty. Pay and workload issues are driving many out of the profession, resulting in a recruitment and retention crisis that is directly impacting on the education of our children and young people.
“No member wants to be taking strike action. To avoid this collision course the government needs to step up and deliver the properly funded education system our children and young people deserve. It is time to save education.”
Updated
Here is a map showing the election results in Wales, where Plaid Cymru has won the most seats in the Senedd but is short of a majority:
Labour loses control of Lambeth council
Labour has lost control of Lambeth council, pushing the party out of power in the London borough for the first time since 2006, PA reports.
Labour won 26 of the 63 seats in the face of a Green party surge.
The Greens won 29 seats, becoming the largest party, with Liberal Democrats on eight.
The result means Lambeth is the eighth London council previously run by Labour moving to no overall control.
The Greens previously had just four seats in Lambeth, with Labour on 54.
Updated
On Ken Skates becoming interim Welsh Labour leader, the secretary of state for Wales, Jo Stevens, said:
Ken has the determination, experience, and values to lead our party in Wales as we learn from this result. We’ve already worked together to deliver for the people of Wales, including on the UK Labour Government’s transformational £14bn plan for rail. There’s much more to do. I look forward to rebuilding the Welsh Labour party with him and our new Senedd Group, for the future Wales deserves.
Updated
Analysis: SNP may have won again but Scottish politics has been upended
This had been the most unpredictable Scottish election for more than a decade, with a record number of undecided voters, and one defined by public apathy and frustration, writes Libby Brooks and Severin Carrell.
Long before the final votes were counted in Scotland, veteran Labour politicians said it was a defeat made in Downing Street.
When the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, strode into the Glasgow count arena on Friday afternoon flanked by sombre-faced activists, the scene was a mirror image to the same venue in 2024, when his resurgent party won 36 seats from the Scottish National party, playing a significant part in Keir Starmer’s landslide victory.
Two years later, Starmer’s unpopularity proved an insurmountable obstacle for Sarwar, despite record donations to Scottish Labour and a formidable electoral machine, honed over the past five years. And with only a handful of constituencies declared, he decided to concede defeat before the real scale of Labour losses across the country was known.
More than 12 hours later, when the final regional results were declared after 1am, it was clear that Holyrood politics had been upended. Scottish Labour had tied in second place behind the SNP with Reform UK, the party that previously attacked Sarwar’s loyalty to Scotland in a racist ad. And a party that the SNP leader, John Swinney, has described as an acute threat to devolution.
Read more here:
The Press Association has reported the first election result today, in Barnsley, where there were multiple recounts in the Penistone West ward.
After four separate counts in that ward, Reform has won control of the traditional Labour stronghold in South Yorkshire with 42 seats.
Labour came second with 11 seats – losing 35 – followed by Liberal Democrats with eight and independents with two.
Updated
Welsh Labour announces interim leader
Welsh Labour has announced Ken Skates will serve as its interim leader.
Eluned Morgan resigned from the role yesterday after losing her seat in the Senedd.
Skates will serve as leader until a timetable is set for a full leadership election, the party said.
“Today is just the beginning of a process that will help us to understand what we got wrong. Because we did get it wrong,” Skates said.
“There is no reading of this result that endorses every action we have taken as a party and our task now is to take the time needed and to work out what has happened.
“It is a task that will require every single one of us to take part in – every member, every councillor, every MS, MP, Lord and all roles in between.
“But it is not a task that is beyond us.”
Skates, first elected in 2011, has held several Welsh government roles including transport secretary and economy and infrastructure secretary. He was re-elected to the Senedd for Fflint Wrecsam yesterday.
Updated
Most Labour members think Starmer cannot revive party fortunes, poll finds
The majority of Labour members say they do not believe Keir Starmer can turn around the party’s fortunes, while 45% say the prime minister should step down.
The mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, was the first preference for 42% of members, who were asked to rank their preferred successor.
Several Labour MPs – especially those who are close to Burnham – have told the Guardian that they would like to see a timetable for Starmer to stand down in an orderly and dignified way, including allowing the mayor time to seek a parliamentary seat.
The poll was conducted just before Thursday’s elections, where Labour was fighting on all fronts, in local elections in England and parliamentary elections in Wales and Scotland.
Among members, the poll found Burnham has a net favourability of 72%, suggesting he would be likely to win any leadership contest that he was allowed to contest. Burnham cannot run while he is denied the chance to run for parliament, which has been blocked by Labour’s governing national executive committee (NEC).
The poll of more than 1,000 party members shows a sharp rise in the number of members dissatisfied with Starmer’s leadership – in October just 28% said the prime minister should resign if Labour suffered poor election results in May.
Read more here:
We’ve got a bit more from Swinney, who says it is vital to ensure the Scottish Parliament is “Farage-proofed”.
Nigel Farage is now galloping towards Downing Street and the prospect of a Reform-led government is more likely than not. The UK may well soon have a prime minister who is openly hostile to minority groups, who has called for the privatisation of the NHS and the abolition of the Scottish Parliament.
It is vital that we unite in Scotland to ensure our parliament is fully Farage-proofed. That means having the power before 2029 to decide our own constitutional future without Farage being able to block us.
The alternative future for Scotland is as an independent country with the greatest security and prosperity offered by EU membership, and making our vast energy wealth work for the people of Scotland. I will have more to say on the way forward on independence in the coming days and weeks.
Swinney: Reform UK will be locked out of Scottish government
Scotland’s first minister John Swinney has said he will engage with other parties at Holyrood to form a majority government to ensure Reform UK is “locked out”.
Speaking at a press conference in Edinburgh, Swinney said:
Nigel Farage’s Reform Party have won seats in the Scottish Parliament.
While I obviously recognise that some people in Scotland support Reform, there is no doubt that many of our fellow Scots will today be feeling very unsettled by the prospect of a party taking seats in the Scottish Parliament which holds such hostility to minority groups in our country.
So, I want to reaffirm today the commitment I made when I took office.
I will build a Scotland where everyone feels seen, where everyone feels at home and where everyone is able to contribute to Scotland’s story.
I believe that the vast majority of MSPs in this new parliament share that aspiration. So, my immediate commitment, as I promised during the campaign, is to ensure that Nigel Farage and Reform are locked out of governance in Scotland.
I will be engaging in talks with other opposition parties in the coming days to ensure that this happens and that there can be a stable and inclusive approach to governance.
Updated
Away from domestic politics, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed a Royal Navy warship is being sent to the Middle East to be ready to join an international mission to safeguard shipping in the strait of Hormuz.
Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon will “pre-position” in the region, ready to join the UK and French-led initiative once hostilities cease between Iran and US-Israeli forces.
The proposed mission championed by Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron would involve a coalition of nations willing to ensure freedom of navigation in the strait, a vital route for global oil and gas supplies along with other goods including fertiliser.
A MoD spokesman said:
We can confirm that HMS Dragon will deploy to the Middle East to pre-position ahead of any future multinational mission to protect international shipping when conditions allow them to transit the Strait of Hormuz.
The pre-positioning of HMS Dragon is part of prudent planning that will ensure that the UK is ready, as part of a multinational coalition jointly led by the UK and France, to secure the strait, when conditions allow.
Ap Iorwerth aiming for minority Plaid Cymru government
Bethan McKernan is the Guardian’s Wales correspondent
Wales’s stirring national anthem, mae hen wlad fy nhadau - the land of my fathers - rang out across a sunny Cardiff Bay on Saturday afternoon as Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru leader and Wales’s likely new first minister, took to the steps of the Senedd, flanked by more than 40 of the party’s new Senedd members.
Amid applause, the Plaid leader confirmed that his party would seek to form a minority government.
Under Wales’s new, more representative electoral system, at least 49 seats are needed for a majority. No party was likely to win that, but Friday’s result of 43 seats for Plaid Cymru put it in a strong position ahead of cooperation talks on legislation with other parties.
Ap Iorwerth said:
I have tried to make it as clear as I can throughout the course of the campaign, and prior to that, that I am somebody who always seeks to work within the spirit of co-operation.
I made it clear that my desire, if we were able to, would be to form a minority Plaid Cymru government.
He added it is “clear now that we are in that position”.
Mapped: how Labour lost ground in different directions
As we’ve been reporting, Labour suffered heavy losses across England, Scotland and Wales, losing ground to opponents on the left and the right in a fragmented political system.
The graphics in this piece form my colleagues Alex Clark, Ashley Kirk and Michael Goodier show where Labour’s losses were most severe, and how the electoral landscape has changed as a result.
We have also heard from the leader of Plaid Cymru, Rhun ap Iorwert, who hailed a “new beginning” after Labour was booted from power in Wales after 27 years.
He said no prime minister “can cast Wales aside or turn a blind eye to our needs” in a victory speech on the steps of the Senedd in Cardiff.
“This is history made by the people of Wales,” he said.
“It has been an honour to work on this campaign, but this campaign could only build on the work that has been done over a century of believing in our nation’s future.”
Updated
Downing Street has released some images of Keir Starmer’s talks this morning with Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman, both of whom have been given new jobs in government:
Starmer: government made 'unnecessary mistakes'
Starmer said he would be “setting out with clarity the convictions and values that drive me” in the coming days, as he seeks to reset his leadership.
Speaking from south London this afternoon, he said the government has made “unnecessary mistakes”.
“One of which was that we, rightly in my view, levelled with the public about the challenges that we face as a country both on the finances and internationally – but what we didn’t do is enough to convince them about the change that would impact them, how their lives would be better.
“The hope wasn’t there enough in the first two years of this government.
“That’s why it’s important for me now to set out where hope resides. It resides in our young people having the future to go as far as their talent or ability will take them – to genuinely have that because if you’ve grown up in poverty, you don’t get that chance.”
Updated
Starmer: 'I'm not going to walk away from this'
Keir Starmer is now speaking to the BBC on Labour’s losses in the election.
“I’m not going to walk away from this, that would plunge the country into chaos,” the prime minister said.
“But that doesn’t mean we don’t need to respond. It doesn’t mean we don’t need to rebuild. It doesn’t mean that we don’t need to set out the path ahead.
“That’s what I’m going to do in the coming days.”
We have another Labour MP in Norfolk calling for the departure of the prime minister.
Terry Jermy, MP for South West Norfolk (Liz Truss’s old stomping ground) said the local election results were “disappointing” and that people were “not feeling the change promised by the government”.
“It is clear the Labour government needs to review the pace of change, what we are prioritising, and how we are delivering it,” he said in a statement.
“Keir Starmer, as leader of our party, needs to consider whether he is the right person to take the party and the government forward.”
Jermy’s statement follows comments by Labour’s Norwich South MP, Clive Lewis, who said “greater damage” could be caused if Starmer remains in charge. Labour lost control of Norwich city council to the Green party.
“The local election results in Norwich, despite Labour’s excellent track record at the city council, and across the country, make this an existential moment for Labour,” Lewis said.
“This will not be fixed by another speech, another comms reset, or another reshuffle.”
He added: “The prime minister has reached the point where the question is no longer whether he can recover.
“It is whether, by staying on, he does lasting damage to Labour’s ability to govern, rebuild trust and stop the advance of the right.
“That is why a timetable for his departure is now necessary. The longer this is delayed, the greater the damage to the party and the country.”
Updated
Speaking of Scottish independence, Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, said that, actually, the SNP does not have the mandate to hold a second referendum.
His reasoning was that the SNP did not gain a majority at Holyrood.
PA has reported more on his comments from Edinburgh this morning:
(John Swinney) said if the SNP got a majority that would give him a mandate.
They didn’t, they went backwards in vote share numbers of MSPs elected to the SNP.
So, they’ve actually got no mandate for doing that and I really hope they won’t allow Scottish politics to be distracted by that.
Yet again, there’s so many serious issues. People are really struggling and can’t get GP appointments, they can’t afford the food on the table, they can’t afford their energy bills.
Surely a responsible government will ensure this new parliament focuses on things like matter to families and pensioners and businesses across Scotland.
In Scotland, Green co-leader Ross Greer said his party and the SNP have a joint “mandate to deliver” a second vote on independence.
The Scottish parliament has its highest ever number of MSPs who support independence, with 73 MSPs from the SNP and Scottish Greens
“Independence is urgently needed,” Greer told BBC Radio Scotland’s Breakfast, adding that his party “went into this election committed to achieving Scottish independence, and full membership of the European Union”.
He added: “I want the next prime minister – because let’s be honest, it is not going to be Keir Starmer for very long – the next prime minister needs to respect the people of Scotland have made this choice.
“We are a democratic country, people should be able to get what they want at an election. A majority of the parliament are from pro-independence parties and there is an urgent need for this.”
A flurry of news on the elections this morning, let’s head to Wales for a moment.
The Wales Green party leader, Anthony Slaughter, said he is “open to having conversations” with Plaid Cymru over the next Welsh government.
Plaid Cymru became the largest party in the new Senedd but fell short of attaining a majority.
“We welcome the defeat of Reform and congratulate Plaid Cymru on their result – this is a victory for everyone who wanted to keep Reform’s divisive, Trumpian politics out of Wales,” Slaughter said in a statement.
“We are a welcoming nation – and Wales needs to stay a place where everyone is treated with respect and dignity, and can thrive.
“When it comes to the next government of Wales, we are open to having conversations, but no decisions have been made at this point.
“In any negotiations we will be looking to deliver on the Green objectives that people voted on in this election – including action to address the cost-of-living crisis, protecting our NHS, fixing the renting crisis and restoring our natural environment.”
Updated
To find out what happened in your area in Thursday’s elections, head to our results tracker here:
On Harriet Harman’s appointment as adviser on women and girls, Starmer said:
Harriet is a strong advocate for women and girls and I know she will deliver greater opportunity for women in public life.
I’m committed to tackling structural misogyny that is a barrier for too many women and girls. I look forward to working with Harriet to drive forward action on this important issue.
Starmer: Brown will 'build a stronger Britain'
Keir Starmer has issued a brief statement on social media about Gordon Brown’s return to government.
He said: “Today I’m pleased to appoint Gordon Brown as my special envoy on global finance and cooperation.
“As Britain’s longest-serving chancellor, Gordon is well placed to work with our international allies to build a stronger Britain and boost our country’s security and resilience.”
Updated
Another Labour MP has joined calls for Starmer to set out a timetable for his departure.
Tony Vaughan, MP for Folkestone and Hythe, said there should be an “orderly transition of leadership” before next year’s local elections.
He said the party was “hamstrung” by Starmer’s association with Labour’s mistakes in office including winter fuel cuts, benefits reform, the prime minister’s comments on Gaza and appointment of Peter Mandelson.
Writing on X, Vaughn said:
We have to get on with the job we were elected to do. But we are hamstrung if we continue to be led by the personification of earlier – serious – mistakes. We must give the public a Labour leader with a clear vision, conviction and the ability to inspire if we are to stand any chance of turning things around.
So I strongly believe that there must be an orderly transition of leadership well before the local elections next year. Otherwise, we are conceding defeat to Farage before we have even started.
Updated
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has mocked Keir Starmer over Gordon Brown’s return to government.
“An unpopular prime minister who lost a general election is now seen by Starmer as being the saviour. Labour are doomed,” he wrote on X.
We have more from Downing Street on Brown’s appointment as special envoy on global finance.
He will be tasked with developing new international finance partnerships that can support defence and security-related investment, including measures that underpin the UK’s relationship with Europe.
As part of the role he will engage with international leaders and finance institutions as well as private finance partners to establish multilateral finance mechanisms.
The former prime minister, who steered the country through the 2008 financial crash and was also the longest serving chancellor of the modern era, has consistently thrown his support behind Starmer through various dramas (most recently the Peter Mandelson saga).
Starmer appoints Brown as special envoy on global finance
Gordon Brown has been appointed as a special envoy on global finance.
Number 10 said:
The PM has committed to boosting the country’s security and resilience’
In this role, Gordon Brown will advise on how global finance cooperation can help to achieve this.
Updated
Gordon Brown visits Starmer at No 10
Former prime minister Gordon Brown was seen meeting Keir Starmer at Downing Street.
He was pictured shaking hands with the prime minister outside No 10 this morning.
There are no details on what they discussed, but the visit comes as Starmer attempts to shore up support for his leadership amid calls for him to step down.
Starmer appoints Harriet Harman as adviser on women and girls
Keir Starmer has appointed former deputy leader Harriet Harman as his adviser on women and girls in his first post-election move.
Harman will work with ministers on work to tackle violence against women and girls, improving job prospects and increasing representation in parliament and public life, Downing Street said. She will report directly to the prime minister in the unpaid part-time role.
Earlier, Harman told Sky News that Starmer should continue as prime minister but that he needs to make changes. “More of the same is not acceptable,” she said.
Updated
Election results so far
Here are where things stand according to results data from the Press Association:
After 129 of 136 English councils had declared full results, Labour had lost control of 32 authorities and suffered a net loss of 1,051 seats.
Reform gained control of 13 councils and added 1,276 seats.
The Conservatives suffered a net loss of eight councils and 427 councillors.
The Liberal Democrats won three councils and gained a net 142 seats.
The Green party gained control of four councils and put on 306 councillors.
The SNP have 58 Holyrood seats, Labour 17, Reform 17, the Scottish Greens 15, the Conservatives 12 and the Liberal Democrats 10.
In Wales, Plaid Cymru have 43 seats in the Senedd, with Reform on 34, Labour on nine, the Conservatives on seven, the Greens on two and the Liberal Democrats on one.
The SNP’s Stephen Gethins said Scottish independence should be a priority for the party, saying 73 MSPs out of 129 elected on Thursday supported the move, PA reports.
The SNP won 58 seats while the Scottish Greens, which has long supported independence, won a record 15.
“We’ve got the biggest pro-independence majority that the parliament has ever had, the people have spoken and the weekend after an election is a good time for us all to reflect on that just a little bit,” Gethins said.
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Trump congratulates SNP's Swinney
Donald Trump has congratulated the SNP’s John Swinney, who will return as first minister after a fifth Scottish election victory for the party.
Writing on his Truth Social app, the US president said:
Congratulations to John Swinney on winning his Re-Election for First Minister of Scotland. He is a good man, who worked very hard, along with the King and Queen of the United Kingdom, with respect to Tariff relief for Great Scottish Whiskey — and deserves this Big Electoral Victory!
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Lucy Powell: 'Timetable for leadership change is wrong conclusion'
Lucy Powell, Labour’s deputy leader, said it was time to end “this incessant speculation” about Stamer’s position.
“What I would say to people is, thinking that setting out some kind of timetable would put to bed the issues of leadership, I think is actually the wrong conclusion here,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“All that would do is fire the starting gun of a, quite honestly, very distracting and ongoing debate about leadership.”
She added: “I don’t want to hear about that any more. I wanted to get on with the job of turning this country around and delivering the big change, the big, bold Labour change that people voted for two years ago. The more we talk about leadership, the less we can do that.”
Powell confirmed that she would want Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, to be allowed to stand for parliament, but said this should not then involve Burnham then challenging Starmer.
“We don’t do hostile takeovers in the Labour party. It’s not what we’re about,” she said.
• This segment was amended on 11 May 2026 to correct a word in a quote from Lucy Powell, who referred to “hostile takeovers”, not “hospital takeovers”.
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Growing number of Labour MPs join calls for Starmer to quit
A number of Labour MPs have come out demanding Keir Starmer resigns. A few of them aired their views on social media and on the media round this morning, here’s what they had to say:
Connor Naismith, MP for Crewe and Nantwich, hinted in a post on X that Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham could take the reigns.
Andy is the most popular Labour politician in the country. The suggestion that he wouldn’t be able to win in some of the seats Labour is currently struggling to win is just wrong.
Ironically, this is precisely why we need him back on the front line of national politics.
Clive Betts, MP for Sheffield South East, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme Starmer has to go “in the not too distant future”.
I think there are three scenarios: one is that Keir carries on until the next election and we lose, and we lose badly.
Secondly, that in the end, Keir decides to stick it out, and there is a move to get rid of him, an internal battle, and then the public don’t like parties that fight amongst themselves, so that could lead to an election defeat.
Or in the end, Keir recognises, for the good of the country and the Government, he has to step down at some point in the not too distant future.
Debbie Abrahams, MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth, also told BBC Radio 4’s Today that Starmer had a “matter of months” to make a decision about his future.
“I hope, as he has said, that he will always put the country first and we have to recognise the dangers that we are in now.
“But on this trajectory it doesn’t look good, not just for locals – I lost some really dear colleagues who worked so hard for their constituency – but it means the prospect of us not just losing an election, but who we would lose to and that makes me really fearful.”
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Keir Starmer under pressure to agree exit plan after election mauling
Keir Starmer is under pressure to set out a timeline for his departure after a crushing defeat in elections across Britain prompted senior Labour MPs to call for him to step down within a year.
In a disastrous set of results, Labour had lost control of more than 25 councils and more than 1,000 council seats in England by Friday night, many to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which made large gains across the Midlands and the north as well as taking seats from the Tories in the south.
After more than a century of domination, Labour has faced near-wipeout in Wales, where the party’s first minister, Eluned Morgan, lost her seat. Labour could slump to third place in Scotland behind the SNP and Reform. In London, a Green surge meant Labour lost control of councils it had dominated, including Hackney and Waltham Forest.
While the prime minister appeared to have avoided an immediate coup, there was a furious response to the results among senior MPs and the unions, with some warning him to change course or risk electoral oblivion. By Friday evening, 10 more MPs had called for him to set out a timetable for departure from No 10.
Read more here:
Starmer under pressure as Labour MPs demand he stands down
In the wake of the local election results, Keir Starmer faced calls to stand down after voters handed a damning verdict on the Labour party.
Starmer took responsibility for defeat after Labour lost hundreds of councillors in England and suffered humiliation in Wales, but he made clear that he would not quit, saying “tough days like this don’t weaken my resolve”.
Some Labour MPs have come out demanding his resignation, but members of Starmer’s cabinet have rallied around the prime minister.
Health secretary Wes Streeting, who is widely seen as a likely candidate in a potential leadership race despite publicly denying such ambitions, said Starmer had his “support”.
“I’ll continue putting my shoulder to the wheel as the health and social care secretary, who’s getting the NHS back on its feet and making sure it’s fit for the future,” he said.
Home secretary Shabana Mahmood acknowledged “a devastating night” for Labour but said the prime minister “has rightly said we must do better”.
But several backbench MPs have called on Starmer to set out a timetable to resign. Clive Betts, MP for Sheffield South East, said Starmer has to go “in the not too distant future”, while Sarah Owen, MP for Luton North, said it’s “do or die for the Labour leadership”.
Labour suffered a historic loss in Wales, where the party’s 27 years in power has come to an end with Plaid Cymru winning the largest number of seats, though still short of a majority. In Scotland, the SNP is emerging as the victor.
The Conservative party also lost ground, but there has been no leadership speculation around Kemi Badenoch.
Arguably the biggest winner on Thursday was Reform UK, having gained more than 1,200 seats and control of 12 councils in England, according to the Press Association’s tally of the results. Reform leader Nigel Farage declared he had ushered in “a truly historic shift in British politics”.
The Liberal Democrats and Green party also made gains at the expense of Labour, with Greens leader Zack Polanski announcing the era of two-party politics “is not just dying, it is dead and it is buried”.
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