Eurosceptic Nigel Farageʼs Reform UK party leads in local elections in Britain

Preliminary results of local elections in Britain indicate that the right-wing populist party Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, is in the lead.

The BBC writes about this.

Reform UK has already won 639 seats in the local elections, while British Prime Minister Keir Starmerʼs Labour Party has only 352 seats.

The results show significant losses for Prime Minister Keir Starmerʼs Labour Party. According to The Times political columnist John Curtis, Labour has already lost about 250 seats — half of those it was trying to retain.

Voting data from more than 500 constituencies shows that Labourʼs support has fallen by 16 points compared to 2022 and by 19 points compared to the 2024 local elections.

Amid the poor results, calls for Starmerʼs resignation began to emerge within the party. Starmer himself stated that he had no intention of resigning and intended to continue fulfilling his campaign promises.

Nigel Farage is known as one of the main initiators of Britainʼs exit from the EU. He also claimed that NATO and EU expansion allegedly provoked Putin to invade Ukraine.

At the same time, in recent years he has supported strengthening NATO defenses, advocated shooting down Russian planes if they violate the Allianceʼs airspace, and supported Ukraineʼs accession to NATO.

• Polls in Britain opened on the morning of May 7. Britons are electing deputies to 136 local councils, mayors of individual cities, as well as members of parliament in Scotland and Wales. In total, more than 5 000 seats are at stake. The results of the counting are expected by Saturday.

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