The Guardian: The party’s leader, Nigel Farage, described the early results as a “historic change in British politics” and said his party was “scoring stunning percentages in traditional old Labour areas”…
Defiant Starmer ‘not walking away’ after Labour losses as Farage hails Reform’s ‘historic shift’
With more than 40 of the 136 council results in, the party appears to be losing grip of its historic heartlands with major losses in Tameside, Hartlepool and Wigan, as pollsters predict more than 1,500 Labour council seats could be lost.
Meanwhile, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party has seen a surge in support, winning more than 300 seats…
Starmer vows to fight on as PM despite heavy local election losses for Labour
Starmer admitted on Friday morning the results were looking bad for his party. “The results are tough, they are very tough, and there’s no sugarcoating it,” he said…
Tories win back ‘jewels in the crown’
However, it was still a difficult night for the Conservatives, which lost Newcastle-under-Lyme to Reform UK as well as hundreds of other seats across the country…
‘No one wants what Labour is selling’: Your reaction to the local elections
As Telegraph reader John London put it: “Trying to turn Starmer into the scapegoat doesn’t change the fact that Labour has failed far more broadly as a party capable of government.
“If it was just Starmer, there wouldn’t be this desperate search for a replacement from the political backwoods. The party simply ignored the mood music on issues like illegal immigration and aspects of the benefits system where the majority view of the population ran counter to the position of activists within Labour.
“Labour ignored the economy (the only important thing) in favour of budgets designed to punish the middle class – often in petty ways where the effect of the tax change raised no net revenue, but played to the party gallery.”…