Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to listen to voters but refused to shift “left or right” despite pressure to change course and backbench calls for a new leader following Labour’s electoral humiliation.
According to The Standard, the UK Prime Minister said responding to “tough” results, which saw Labour lose hundreds of councillors in England and suffer humiliation in Wales, would mean “being assertive in our values” and “unifying rather than dividing.”
May 7 ballots, Starmer's biggest electoral test since Labour ousted the Conservatives in 2024, left the British leader under intense pressure after the party suffered a historic mauling in its Welsh heartlands.
Alongside the Tories, it was also decimated by Nigel Farage's anti-immigrant Reform UK party across England, and failed to make any inroads into Scottish National Party (SNP) dominance north of the border.
But Starmer, who has faced persistent calls to quit from rival party leaders and some Labour MPs for months, was adamant he was "not going to walk away and plunge the country into chaos."
The 63-year-old said "The results are tough, they are very tough, and there's no sugarcoating it. It should hurt, and I take responsibility."
Several cabinet members voiced support for him, and the lack of an obvious alternative leader has reduced the immediate peril of a potential challenge.
Farage, whose upstart party has led national polls for over a year and seized a string of Labour and Conservative councils Friday, predicted Starmer would be ousted within months.
