The results from UK’s local elections show a strong rise for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, while Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party is suffering significant losses.

Voters turned out in large numbers on Thursday across England, Scotland, and Wales. According to analysts, turnout exceeded usual levels by ten percentage points.

Reform UK recorded notable victories in several areas, while the governing Labour Party lost local councillors. The Conservatives also suffered losses. The Liberal Democrats and the Greens appeared to make slight gains, although the latter did not achieve what polls had predicted.

Overall, the elections concerned the appointment of 5,014 municipal and regional councillors across 136 local authorities, including the 32 boroughs of London.

In addition, elections were held for directly elected mayors in six major urban areas. In Scotland and Wales, voters also went to the polls for the local parliaments, which hold expanded powers.

Although these elections do not determine the national government, they are considered an important barometer for the country’s direction and for the Starmer government, just months after Labour took power. Political observers are closely monitoring the development of the results.

Farage: We are here to stay

The leader of the anti-immigration Reform UK party, Nigel Farage, expressed satisfaction today with the first local election results in Britain, saying they show that his party “is here to stay.”

“We are witnessing a historic change in British politics,” Farage said in London. “We are the most patriotic of the parties, and we will be here for a long time,” he added, as the results from Thursday’s elections show strong gains for Reform UK.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he “takes responsibility” for the “painful” results of the local elections in Britain.

However, Starmer stated that he does not plan to resign from the leadership, according to British media outlets.

“Days like this do not lessen my determination to deliver the change I promised,” he said, according to the news broadcaster GB News.

“I will not give up,” he stressed, adding: “I will stand as prime ministerial candidate in the next general election.”