Reform UK gains at Labour’s expense in local elections
5/8/202633 min
It has been a crushing set of local and devolved elections for Labour, with Reform UK making huge gains across the country and the Greens winning in London. Keir Starmer is under pressure to announce a timeline for his departure – yet he insists he will not walk away. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/politicspod
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 0· Soundbite0:00
This is The Guardian. [upbeat music] Let me be clear, these are really tough results. I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. The voters have sent a message about the pace of change. I was elected to meet those challenges, and I'm not going to walk away. I think overall what's happened is a truly historic shift in British politics.
Nigel Farage· Soundbite0:31
Two-party politics is not just dying, it is dead, and it is buried. It's very clear that the new politics is the Green Party versus Reform.
Kemi Badenoch· Soundbite0:39
Those people who want everything to change overnight are people who don't know how to do the work, who don't know how to build. The Conservative Party is the only serious alternative to Labour right now.
Pippa Crerar· Host0:49
I'm Pippa Carriera.
Kiran Stacey· Co-host0:51
And I'm Kieran Stacey.
Pippa Crerar· Host0:53
And you're listening to Politics Weekly.
Kiran Stacey· Co-host0:55
For The Guardian.
Pippa Crerar· Host0:56
Hello.
Kiran Stacey· Co-host1:00
Hello.
Pippa Crerar· Host1:00
We're recording this at 2:00 on Friday, and we have only 51 out of 136 council declared in the English council elections, and obviously Scotland and Wales still to come as well, alongside other results tonight and into Saturday. But already, Kieran, we can start to see some trends in this really important set of elections, can't we?
Kiran Stacey· Co-host1:22
Yeah, and it, you know, they're not entirely unexpected trends, Pippa. I mean, the big losers so far from the early results have