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The result from Manchester where Labour lost 24 seats and the Greens gained 17 suggests that Andy Burnham isn’t as popular as is generally thought; that, or the dislike of Starmer outweighs his popularity.
Of other areas in his Greater Manchester Mayoralty, Labour have lost plenty of seats too – with the exception of Bury where they lost just one seat – notably Tameside which has gone from Labour to NOC. Trafford yet to declare.
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown ‘King of the North’
Unusual times you normally see the big two rise and fall with each other but they are both falling.
The more I know the less I understand.
Reform, despite pretending otherwise, is essentially a continuity UKIP/Brexit Party (essentially a Farage vehicle, I guarantee that some who voted for them will be confused as to why he’s not PM now) with the dregs of the Tories thrown in for good measure. Many of the problems they whine about can be traced directly back to their current MPs one way or another. They are firmly part of the Establishment that they claim to be against.
The Greens are picking up the left wing voters abandoned by Labour and the Lib Dems are a good fit for the the ‘one nation’ Tories similarly abandoned by their party. Both abandoning (some of) their base in pursuit of people that will never vote for them, or at least never will again.
On Manchester, the time for Burnham to return to Westminster was the last General Election. There’s no guarantees anywhere now and it’ll reek of a stitch up. He seems a decent enough bloke but trying to parachute him in as a PM replacement now is desperate. Perhaps a different story had he already been there.
What people think of Reform is neither here nor there people have done the anti Starmer vote that is their only thought.
The more I know the less I understand.
Sky News projection (re next GE) predicts Reform short of overall maj by around 40 seats, but with Tories predicted at 90ish seats, plus a few Ulster Unionists, likely a Right-wing government next time.
Long time to go though, poss 3 years.
I’m still finding myself wistfully thinking back to the old school Conservative governments that I would never have voted for but would give anything to see in government now.
Blimey, Reform have gained St Helens. A place where the Labour vote used to be weighed rather than counted.
And not just the more affluent areas such as Windle, Eccleston and Rainford. Even places like West Park and Thatto Heath turned turquoise.
It looks like a swathe of independent candidates won in Newton-le-Willows and Rainhill.
Reform have got control of my local council Calderdale.
At least my Council tax will be going down next year
I wish you luck Homer … you’ll need , I’ve now more years of the SNP demanding an independence vote , awful day for Starmer , it’s time he stops thinking for himself but the good of the party , my highlight though is all the Tories saying Badenoch is the most popular leader in the doorsteps …. While they’ve lost more seats , surely the knife sharpening machine is getting started up , they can’t go to an election with her
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
Do let us know how it goes Homer. Won’t be long until you start having by-elections when they find out what being a local councillor is actually like and quit.
One thing Labour should be congratulated on is the action they have taken to eliminate ‘family voting’. Given that it was apparently rampant at the recent Westminster by-election but we haven’t heard of a single instance of it on Thursday, whatever they have done clearly worked.
I will do Richard. There were boundary changes of the wards in our area which affected me. My new ward has three Reform councillors replacing the Labour ones. My old ward has 2 Green + 1 Reform.
Mind you if they manage to do something with the landslip which has blocked off a road for the last 2.5 years then fair play to them.
The one positive was that the Tories lost all 11 seats leaving them with a big fat zero.
Reform surged in neighbouring Kirklees too with 29 seats and Labour down to a big fat zero from 23, though thanks to a decent number of Greens and Independents the council remains NOC.
Reform have overwhelmed Wakefield with 58 of the 65 seats and Labour with just 1, down from 48.
Barnsley have yet to declare but I expect much the same result as Wakefield.
Blimey, Reform have gained St Helens
I’m still trying to get to grips with how local elections are structured but it would seem that St Helens with all seats up for election is a lone outlier in Merseyside, Lanacashire and Greater Manchester with all the others being one-third, all of which will be voting again for another third in 2027 and the remaining third in 2028.
Which explains why St Helens went Reform while the others remained more or less the same, despite a rise in Reform voting and drop in Labour. So, unless Labour get their act together over the coming two years it’s quite probable Reform will continue to gather councillors in 2027 and 2028, possibly resulting in eventual council control like St Helens.
In the Yorkshire constituencies mentioned above all seats were contested; hence the large swings to Reform.
A similar tale in other all-seat contests around the country where Reform gained control such as Newcastle-under-Lyme, Sunderland and Thurrock.
As far as I can gather 27 ‘Metropolitan Districts’ who had one-third votes on Thursday will be voting again in 2027 and 2028.
Labour: be warned
The situation with St Helens elected a whole council rather than a third does seem odd.
Anyway, to illustrate how catastrophic it was for Labour, this is the final result:
The final results:
Reform: 34
Liberal Democrats: 3
Newton-le-Willow Independents: 3
Rainhill Independents: 3
Labour: 2
Conservative: 1In a town it has dominated for decades and where it still holds both the parliamentary seats (for now), Starmer has managed to reduce it to a pitiful 2 council seats. But he still thinks he is the man for the job.
The sole Conservative was elected in Rainford, where I was yesterday. I don’t expect that situation will last much longer as the old Rainford continues to die off.
Now part of St Helens North, Rainford used to be in the old Ormskirk constituency before its abolition. Which means the village’s MPs have included a young Harold Wilson (before he ran away to Huyton) and the unforgettable Robert Kilroy Silk..
The problem is that Starmer is a lawyer, not a politician. Nobody believes what Starner says, because nobody can work out what he stands for. He reacts to events, rather than making sensible decisions and strongly defending them. For example, he has made life difficult for legal immigrants (who we need for care and the NHS) whereas he should hwve said we are tackling illegal immigrants within the constraints of International Law, while pointing out how we all suffer if International Law is abandoned. He only has to illustrate how the USA is falling apart. He was right to refuse to join the war against Iran, but he should have prevented Trump using bases in this country. Consistently is required.
Obviously Starmer hasn’t done a particularly good job to say the least and his position is all but untenable. I don’t think he’s a bad person, he’s just made some very bad decisions.
That said, are people really going to come back to Labour in their droves if someone else comes in? It’s got to be worth a try of course but the right will hammer whoever it is because they want their people in charge. They are quite happy to ignore or excuse the same or worse transgressions than Labour figures have committed when it’s their own lot doing it.
Does Pilkington Glass still have a factory in St Helens? Used to employ thousands I guess.
Harold Wilson, a son of Kirklees. I was in Huddersfield recently and passed his statue in Station Square with a smile, though at present the poor old chap is accompanied by the glaring red hoardings of a building site renovating the station and surrounds, including the George Hotel, famous for being the birthplace of Rugby League.
Robert Kilroy Silk was a detestable individual in my not so humble opinion who thankfully seems to have disappeared from public life.
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