disastrous decision to appoint Peter Mandelson<\/a>, a scandal-tarnished friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as the UK ambassador to Washington.<\/p>\nLabour is defending about 2500 seats on English local councils, and party members are apprehensive it may lose many of them.<\/p>\n
Forecasters suggest Labour will lose well over half of the 2500 seats it is defending on English local councils. <\/p>\n
It is expected to lose votes to parties on both left and right \u2014 especially to the Green Party in London and Reform UK in working-class, former Labour strongholds in England\u2019s north.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/britain-elections-TZ7RF2YQEFB7REXT2XF4K5W5ME.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
A Reform UK political sign put up by the householder to show support ahead of local council elections in London (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
“These elections are a perilous, perilous moment for Keir Starmer,” said Tony Travers, professor in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics. <\/p>\n
He said that after a series of policy U-turns and in an economy where “there isn\u2019t much money to spend on anything\u2026 his opponents are lining up.”<\/p>\n
Starmer has already survived one crisis in February, when some Labour lawmakers, including the party\u2019s leader in Scotland, urged him to quit over the Mandelson appointment.<\/p>\n
An election rout could trigger a snap leadership challenge from a high-profile rival such as health secretary Wes Streeting, former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner or Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham. <\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/britain-elections-BTXAO6ZTKZDSDEAUUONOZQJONA.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
A Labour Party political sign put up by the householder to show support ahead of local council elections in London, Wednesday, May 6, 2026 (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
Any challenger would need the support of 80 lawmakers, one-fifth of the party in the House of Commons, to trigger a contest. <\/p>\n
In Burnham\u2019s case, he would have to win election to Parliament before he could take over.<\/p>\n
Alternatively, Starmer could face pressure from the party to set a timetable for his departure after an orderly leadership contest.<\/p>\n
“His parliamentary party are unsure as to whether now is the right time to unseat him,” said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London.<\/p>\n
“So there might be a stay of execution.”<\/p>\n
But, Bale added, “it\u2019s a case of when rather than if he goes.”<\/p>\n
Polls point to fragmented politics and fractured country<\/p>\n
For decades, Labour losses would have been good news for its main rival, the right-of-centre Conservative Party. <\/p>\n
But the Conservatives are tarnished by 14 tumultuous years in power that ended in 2024. <\/p>\n
![\"Nigel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/britain-politics-RYFY5L445NHYNB4R2QWJGW7UIY.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, drinks a cup of tea as he meets supporters after a news conference in London on April 2, 2026 (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
In these elections, it\u2019s Nigel Farage-led Reform UK, the left-leaning Greens and nationalist Welsh and Scottish parties that will likely be the main beneficiaries.<\/p>\n
Opponents have heightened their scrutiny of Reform and the Greens in an effort to stop their rise. Farage is facing questions over a 5 million pound (NZ$11.4 million) donation from a cryptocurrency billionaire that he accepted in 2024 but did not declare. <\/p>\n
He says it was a personal gift.<\/p>\n
The environmentalist Greens, who have stressed their pro-Palestinian credentials under self-described “eco-populist” leader Zack Polanski, have fired several candidates for antisemitic social media posts.<\/p>\n
Travers said Britain is moving from being a “two-and-a-half party system” \u2014 with the Liberal Democrats as the usual third party \u2014 “to something more like a five-party one.”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/britain-elections-3UHDWZQZLNC5DPRZX3UOG2PUP4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
A Green Party political sign put up by the householder to show support ahead of local council elections in London, Wednesday, May 6, 2026 (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
That is excellent news for Rhun ap Iorwerth, who leads Plaid Cymru (the Party of Wales) and stands a strong chance of leading that country\u2019s semi-autonomous government.<\/p>\n
“The old politics is gone,” he said. <\/p>\n
“Labour is not going to win this election.”<\/p>\n
A possible seismic shift on the horizon<\/p>\n
Labour has dominated Welsh politics for a century and has held power in Cardiff since the Welsh government was established in 1999. <\/p>\n
Now it may be pushed into third place behind Plaid Cymru and Reform UK.<\/p>\n
A Plaid victory would give three of the four parts of the UK pro-independence leaders. Northern Ireland is governed by the Irish nationalist party Sinn F\u00e9in in a power-sharing arrangement with the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party.<\/p>\n
Party leader Keir Starmer has urged voters to take a chance on a vote for change. Most analysts and politicians expect they will. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
The Scottish National Party, which has governed in Edinburgh since 2007, says it will push for a new referendum on independence if it wins a majority on Thursday. <\/p>\n
Scottish voters rejected leaving the UK in a 2014 vote.<\/p>\n
Plaid Cymru says a secession vote isn\u2019t on the agenda in the next few years, though independence remains the party\u2019s ultimate goal. In the short term, it wants more power to raise taxes and more control over how money is spent.<\/p>\n
“We need a fundamental redesign of Britain,” ap Iowerth said. “This is an unequal union.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British voters will cast ballots in elections later today that could hasten the end of Prime Minister Keir…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39,1745],"class_list":["post-417429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uk-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Britain's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/britain-politics-GF7K5CXWZ5C4VBQFCVKRZB5SDQ.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"British](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/british-prime-minister-keir-starmer-right-talks-with-britain-IXFIV4N2VRAQBMVN2TUSK6XH4I.jpg\")
<\/p>\n