Version imprimableThe combined results have thrown the current UK government into turmoil. The Labour vote collapsed in Cymru “A Defeat Manufactured in Downing Street”, and continued its collapse in Scotland “Scottish Parliament elections: a balance between continuity and change”. In England the Labour Party was largely beaten by Reform UK Labour collapses, the far right grows. Labour Party members report a rarely-seen level of hostility to the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, when canvassing the public. At least twenty per cent of Labour MPs have expressed their opinion that Starmer should go. There have been ministerial resignations including from Secretary of State for Health, Wes Streeting, with a letter attacking Starmer. Streeting is widely thought to wish to stand in a leadership election. During all this Starmer is continuing to insist that he will stay in office.
On 14 May, in a new development, the popular Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, announced his intention to seek the Labour candidacy for a bye-election created by a Labour MP who has announced he is resigning his seat precisely to give that chance to Burnham. Only if Burnham is back in the Westminster parliament can he provoke a leadership election.
Although the Labour National Executive Committee refused to allow Burnham to stand in a recent bye-election - resoundingly won by the Greens overturning a sizeable Labour majority - it is thought he will be allowed to stand this time. It is also a risky strategy as it is a constituency in which the far-right Reform UK made a clean sweep on 7 May and it leaves open the possibility that Labour will also lose the mayoralty. And the Greens have announced that they will fight the election, not standing aside to help Burnham win.
The following three articles look at these results from the different countries involved.
15 May 2026
