5 Takeaways from the May 2026 local Council elections

On May 7^th 2026, Approximately 1/3 of eligible voters had the opportunity to take to the polls in the latest local government elections, and have their voices heard. The results were predictable, but no less damning for this deeply unpopular Labour government, that has seen it’s 20 months in office marred by scandal, hypocrisy and an unprecedented fall in public opinion since winning it’s “loveless landslide” in July 2024.

In England, Reform won 1,372 new council seats, taking their total to 1,454, with the Greens up by 393, and the Lib Dems up 142. Labour lost 1,229 seats in England alone, which exceeded for the previous record for the largest loss of seats in the whole of the UK in a single election!

Reform seized control of 14 councils in England, with 23 councils falling to no overall control, and Labour losing control of 37.

Things were even worse for Labour in Wales, where they have held dominance over the Welsh Parliament for over 30 years. They finished the weekend with a historic low of just 9 seats in the Sened, with their majority wiped out and predominantly shared between Plaid Cymru, who were the biggest winners finishing with 43 seats (albeit short of the 49 seats required for a majority), and Reform exceeding expectations to claim 34 seats.

Many had long predicted that the electorate would utilize these elections as a mechanism to voice their dissatisfaction with the way that Keir Starmer and his inept cabinet have governed over the past 20 months. However, to dismiss these results as a protest vote, and try to pretend that a similar outcome would not be replicated in a General Election should one be held this year, would represent the very worst example of burying ones head in the sand.

Like King Canut trying to hold back the tide, the inevitability of a Labour electoral wipeout still seems beyond the comprehension of our tone-deaf Prime Minister and the diminishing band of loyalists that urge for “more time” and “one more chance”.

So, what were the main takeaways from this set of election results, beyond the obvious and irrepressible loss of faith from the public in the government?...

1. Media attacks on Nigel Farage are not cutting through with Reform voters

In the days leading up to these elections, a conveniently timed focus on an undeclared £5million gift received by Nigel Farage from a crypto billionaire prior to his decision to run as an MP, acted as a thinly-veiled attempt to discredit his and his parties integrity. The assumption from the leftie hacks at The Guardian and The Mirror was that by portraying Farage as untrustworthy or lacking integrity, they might dissuade voters from backing Reform at the ballot box.

They were wrong. The reality is that the majority of Reform voters simply do not care about this stuff. This was a private gift, not paid from taxpayers money, and with no obvious expectation of something in return (which is more than can be said of the £millions of “donations” that the Labour front bench receive from the Trade Unions every year).

Reform voters don’t support Nigel Farage because he claims to represent integrity and moral decency, in the way that Keir Starmer arrogantly parroted throughout his bid for No.10. They back him because they see him as a man of action, whose priorities are aligned with their own, and who presents the most viable option for tackling the issues that they feel most aggrieved by.

Similar to Donald Trump, Reform voters are prepared to accept a less-than-perfect character, one who perhaps does not strive for the same standards of morality or conform to the unrealistic Islington-class expectations of empathy, but who will nonetheless succeed where the 2 main parties have failed.

In attempting to attack his character, the left-wing media are very much barking up the wrong tree. It will take a story of truly seismic proportions to make a dent in the foundations of support for Reform and Nigel Farage at this stage. Wishy-washy stories about private donations, or comments he may or may not have made as a schoolboy nearly 50 years ago, simply are not going to cut it, and that was demonstrated by the record number of votes that Reform received.

2. Labour support collapses in traditional safe areas

What was more striking about the election results was not so much the scale of defeat, it was the areas in which it was experienced. Labour capitulated in traditional “safe” or long-held Labour heartlands (red wall areas in the North, Midlands, and some London Boroughs, as well as throughout Wales), where the party had controlled councils for decades. Reform UK made huge gains in many of these areas, often sweeping seats Labour was defending, whilst the Greens also felt the benefit of Labour’s capitulation in some urban areas.

In Tameside (greater Manchester), Labour lost control for the first time in nearly 50 years. This within Angela Rayner’s constituency, alarm bells will have been ringing amongst her followers as her party lost 16 of the 17 seats they were defending.

In Wigan, also part of Greater Manchester and the constituency seat of Lisa Nandy, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Labour lost all of the 22 seats they were defending to Reform.

Labour also lost control of councils in Hartlepool, Redditch and Tamworth, notable red wall areas, as well as Birmingham, a major long-term Labour stronghold. In some areas, Labour retained control simply by virtue of not enough seats being contested in this round of elections for control to relinquished. However, in many of these areas they still lost ground, including in traditional strongholds such as Lancaster, Salford, Lewisham, Hackney and Waltham Forest.

These results, and the alarming fall in vote share in areas that Labour have historically been able to rely on unwavering support even through dark times, speak of a more fundamental rejection of the Keir Starmer administration, and sets off alarm bells that the party simply cannot continue to ignore.

3. The Greens have a long way to go to challenge Reform

The Green Party enjoyed record-breaking results in these local elections. They won control of multiple councils (including Waltham Forest, Hackney, Hastings, and Norwich), their first-ever directly elected mayors (Zoë Garbett in Hackney and Liam Shrivastava in Lewisham), and made major inroads in London and other urban areas.

By the final count, 587 Green councillors had been elected, representing a net gain of 398, and bringing their total to over 1,300 councillors across more than 200 councils. As a result, this marked their best-ever local election performance and the 9th consecutive set of net gains.

Obviously, the Greens have benefited considerably from obvious public dissatisfaction with the disastrous Labour government, especially in left-leaning urban and university areas like Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Oxford, and Cambridge. Many young people, in particular university students, have been swayed by Zack Polanski’s weird form of politics, as they seek a new political home following severe disillusionment over Keir Starmer’s supposed failure to adequately sanction Israel over the war in Gaza. They also, as discussed in more detail in a previous post here (https://www.triggeringlefties.com/post/gorton-and-denton-signals-a-new-era-of-sectarianism-and-division), continue to triumph in areas with a large Muslim demographic, by mobilizing sectarian bloc voting around the conflict in Gaza, and putting identity politics ahead of shared British values.

However, to put the result into context, the Greens only won approximately ¼ of the seats that Reform UK managed. Whilst appreciating that demographics within the areas being contested will have been a major factor, the reality is that there remains a significant gap in voting intention between Reform and The Greens. For the party that many consider will represent the principle challenger to Reform UK at the next General Election, and may well form the official opposition to a future Reform government, there is still significant work to do in order to bridge the sizeable popularity gap.

Relying on votes from Muslims and university students alone will not be sufficient. Green party policies are unlikely to attract votes from the traditional white working-class voter base who have abandoned Labour and turned to Reform. The Green Party will certainly find itself under increasing scrutiny if it continues to grow and experience greater electoral success. The lunacy of their bizarre ideology will be exposed, as will the intellectual and political shortcomings of the upper echelons of their leadership. Across the majority of the country their support is unlikely to hold up.

As a result, there is likely to be a modest ceiling to their popularity, and they may already be approaching it.

4. The Tories are not dead and buried

The Conservative Party were expected to endure another difficult night, despite recent improvements in polling, particularly for their leader, Kemi Badenoch. Projections had them losing in the region of 650 seats (by some estimates the damage could have been as bad as a 900 seat loss), which would be on a par with the disastrous results of their final set of local elections prior to the end of their time in government in 2024 (albeit not as terrible as their worst ever local election results in 2023).

However, despite previous predictions from Nigel Farage that the emergence of Reform UK as the dominant right-wing presence in UK politics would lead to the death of the Conservative Party, they performed better than many pre-election expectations.

Certainly, in losing 433 seats across England, leading to the loss of control of 8 councils, this could hardly be sold as a positive set of results for the party. However, there were signs of recovery to give grounds for optimism. They regained control of Westminster council from Labour, a notable symbolic win in London. They also held other key areas, and performed strongly in some outer London boroughs like Bexley and Harlow, as well as making unexpected gains from the Lib Dems in parts of rural Oxfordshire.

In the context of Reform UK's massive surge (whose gains were largely at the Tories' expense), the Conservatives showed some resilience and signs of stabilisation in certain areas. It was still a difficult night with heavy losses to Reform (especially in rural and eastern England), but the results were not as catastrophic as some feared. This has given the party under Kemi Badenoch some breathing room and positive talking points amid the broader fragmentation of UK politics, and suggests that they will maintain a place at the top table come the next General Election.

5. Record numbers of Muslim Independent concillors shows sectarian voting continues to blight British politics

Analysis by the Henry Jackson Society (HJS), which examined results across 58 councils, identified roughly 574 "sectarian Muslim" or Islamist-linked candidates elected overall in these elections, which represents about 1 in 10 of all councillors elected, out of 5,066 total seats.

Many of these independents were backed by groups like The Muslim Vote (TMV) or focused on Gaza-related/Muslim community issues. Unsurprisingly, gains were notable in areas with large Muslim populations (e.g., parts of Birmingham, Blackburn, Tower Hamlets, etc.), and continue to build on trends from prior elections, including the wave of independent Muslim MPs elected in 2024.

As previously discussed in this forum, these results continue a concerning trend, and highlight the increasing threat to the survival of democracy in a poorly-integrated multicultural society, when voting becomes a demographic headcount. Increasingly, voters are no longer acting according to values or policy, but often under coercion from community leaders in accordance with tribal loyalties and concerns driven by events occurring thousands of miles away in Gaza.

Many of these independents campaigned on a ticket founded on divisive, sectarian politics. Due to the election of candidates who mobilize sectarian bloc voting around a foreign conflict and put identity politics ahead of shared British values, many British born constituents now find themselves governed by single-issue councilors who are likely to pay scant attention to the problems they face in their everyday lives, unless it has something to do with the war in Gaza.