Keir Starmer on the brink after elections hammering: Live updates

The Conservatives and Reform must now form a pact to ‘unite the Right’ ahead of the next election to prevent a hard-Left government, a senior Tory has warned.

Analysis shows that if the local election results were transferred to a general election, Reform UK would fall well short of an overall majority in the Commons.

Tory grandee Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said: ‘What this shows is the need to reunite the Right.

‘Reform are doing extremely well in places that voted Leave. The Conservatives are showing they can still do well in less Brexity areas. If you combine the two you have an unstoppable force.

‘The alternative is that you have a general election where Reform are in the mid-20s, the Conservatives are in the low-20s and you end up with a governing coalition of the Left.’

An open-collared, stony-eyed Keir Starmer got in his self-denials early. As demolition day began, the PM insisted he was ‘not going to walk away and plunge the country into chaos’.

Four times he did that telephone-tree thing of repeating a message, no matter what had just been said. He kept saying the results were ‘tough’, as if they were some slice of undercooked pork. That another person had cooked.

Responding to election losses is miserable for any politician. Such moments do give us voters fleeting vengeance on the boobies who govern us but the catharsis is better when the politicians show emotion.

Sir Keir just kept mechanically blurping, ‘I am not going to walk away’.

While the nasal knight was indoors at a Methodist hall in Ealing, surrounded by droopy bunting, Nigel Farage was on the far side of London in the sunshine, flanked by gurning Reformers. Behind them stood Havering town hall, built in 1937 in the international moderne style. It was, cried Mr Farage in his pint-of-gin voice, ‘under new management!’

A suntanned, blue-suited Farage clutched the signet ring on his left hand’s pinkie. There was much gassy laughter as he eyed his succulent prospects. Should Sir Keir quit? Farage hoped not. ‘He’s our best asset!’

Read the full sketch below:

Donald Trump has congratulated John Swinney on his election victory in Scotland.

The US president described him as a ‘good man’ who had worked ‘very hard’ with respect to tariff relief for ‘great Scottish whiskey’.

The SNP won 58 seats in Holyrood and are the largest party – but failed to gain a majority.

Mr Swinney was re-elected as First Minister of Scotland.

‘For most of my political career, I’ve been using a shotgun – blasting away just to raise awareness of an issue; to get people to vote on it. Winning seats was irrelevant,’ shouts Nigel Farage above the rising judder of rotor blades preparing for take-off. ‘Now, though, it’s time for rifles.’

And with that it’s lift-off as we head for Merseyside, where his Reform troops are in the process of overrunning several Labour citadels.

Reform and its leader have been absorbing an astonishing set of local election results since dawn – and these keep on coming as the day progresses.

Read Robert Hardman’s full column in the Daily Mail below:

Deputy Labour leader Lucy Powell said Andy Burnham had a ‘huge amount to offer’ the party.

But the Manchester Central MP insisted she did not want to see a challenge to Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership.

Asked if Mr Burnham should be allowed to run for a Westminster seat she told BBC Radio 4’s Today:

I really respect and rate Andy. He’s a friend of mine.

He’s obviously, I work very closely with him here in Greater Manchester. I think he’s got a huge amount to offer. He’s very popular and he’s a great asset to the Labour Party.

And I want to see us using all of the talents that we have in the Labour Party, because this is a big, big, big challenge we’ve got on for the future of the country, let alone the future of the Labour Party.”

But she added:

I don’t want to see a leadership challenge that’s not how we operate in the Labour Party… We don’t do hostile takeovers in the Labour Party, it’s not what we’re about, it’s not what people want to see, it’s not what our members want to see.

The Green Party fell below its own expectations at its first real electoral test in a set of mixed results for Zack Polanski’s troupe of radical Leftists.

The party made gains in inner-city strongholds at local elections yet struggled to deliver the ‘Green wave’ of councillors ‘sweeping England and Wales’ Mr Polanski had predicted in March.

Where recent polls had the Greens winning 555 local council seats nationally from a base of 141, last night it looked like they might fall around 100 short of such a tally.

But they still tore chunks from the Labour vote to contribute to a nightmare for Sir Keir Starmer.

The Greens landed their first two mayoralties, took control of Norwich City Council and ousted the Labour leader of Camden Council in Sir Keir’s own Holborn and St Pancras constituency.

They also scooped up 31 seats directly from Labour in Waltham Forest, east London, landing their first council in the capital.

But, as an insurgent party with a sudden surge in support, they found translating momentum into seats difficult.

Deputy Labour leader Lucy Powell has said Sir Keir Starmer should stay in his position as Prime Minister.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today:

Thinking that setting out some kind of timetable would put to bed the issues of leadership, I think is actually the wrong conclusion here.

Because all that would do is fire the starting gun of a, quite honestly, very distracting and ongoing debate about leadership.

Senior Reform UK member Zia Yusuf has insisted that no more Conservative MPs will be able to join the party.

Nigel Farage’s camp has already welcomed in dozens of Tories, most notably Robert Jenrick, Suella Braverman and Dame Andrew Jenkins.

However when asked if any more will be able to join if they are afraid of losing their seat at the next General Election, Yusuf told Sky News:

No. There was a deadline. Nigel gave a deadline of May 7. That has now passed.

Some of Keir Starmer’s most senior Cabinet Ministers have been called out for failing to back Keir Starmer, as Labour MPs plot the Prime Minister’s downfall.

Last night Downing Street forced most of the Cabinet to post supportive messages backing Sir Keir on social media, but three prominent figures appeared unwilling to do so.

Ed Miliband, who reportedly told the Prime Minister to set out a timetable for his departure recently, failed to back Sir Keir continuing in the role.

Next up the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, appeared to scold the Prime Minister as she demanded: ‘Do better’.

And Wes Streeting, who reportedly already has enough MPs lined up to launch a coup, failed to post anything on social media last night.

Well I have listened to the BBC, and I have absorbed the teachings of Sir John Curtice – and frankly I have had about as much analysis of the local elections as I can take.

My conclusion, from the point of view of an ardent Conservative: there is still absolutely everything to play for.

We have three years until the next election must be called, and polls say we already have the most popular party leader. Kemi Badenoch had a good campaign. She seems fresher and more full of bounce and zap than her rivals.

Read Boris Johnson’s full column on Mail+ below:

Reform UK has ‘taken a big step towards winning the next general election’, according to a senior member of the party.

Zia Yusuf told Sky News: ‘It’s been an historic set of results for Reform. This is an historic moment.

‘No political party, no insurgent political party, has ever managed to, for example, defeat and demolish Labour in their heartlands in the Red wall, for example, while simultaneously demolishing the Tories in some of their heartlands, like Essex.’

Labour MP Connor Naismith, who has called for a change in leadership, dismissed suggestions that Andy Burnham would struggle to win a by-election to enter Parliament.

Greater Manchester Mayor Mr Burnham would need to win a Westminster seat if he is to challenge for the party leadership but Labour was hammered in local elections in the North West.

Crewe and Nantwich MP Mr Naismith said Mr Burnham would be able to defy that trend.

He said:

Andy is the most popular Labour politician in the country.

The suggestion that he wouldn’t be able to win in some of the seats Labour is currently struggling to win is just wrong.

Ironically, this is precisely why we need him back on the front line of national politics.