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Britons voted in lacklustre local elections Thursday with the country’s two main parties bracing for a possible bruising from hard-right candidates as the UK’s political landscape splinters.
The polls in England are the first since Keir Starmer became Labour prime minister and Kemi Badenoch took over at the reins of the struggling opposition Conservatives last year.
The anti-immigrant Reform UK party is expected to make gains, as are the centrist Liberal Democrats and left-wing Greens, confirming a trend that Britain is entering an era of multi-party politics.
Urging people to vote Labour, Starmer said in a message on X Thursday: “The choice is clear.”
“Labour councillors, mayors and MPs working together to bring change to Britain. Or chaos and division with parties who have no plan for change.”
In her final message, Badenoch sought to drum up support for her Tories, saying: “If you want a great council, don’t just hope for it, vote for it.”
“British politics appears to be fragmenting,” political scientist John Curtice wrote in the Telegraph this week, adding the polls “will likely be the first in which as many as five parties are serious players”.
British politics have been dominated by the centre-left Labour party and centre-right Tories since the early 20th century.
But surveys show Britons are increasingly disillusioned with the two establishment parties amid anaemic economic growth, high levels of irregular immigration and flagging public services.
– ‘Fragmentation baked in’ –
New figures published Thursday showed that the number of migrants who have crossed the English Channel on small boats this year has already reached 11,000 — well up on the numbers in 2024.
Labour won a parliamentary majority in July with just 33.7 percent of the vote, the lowest share for any party winning a general election since World War II.
The Conservatives won just 24 percent of the vote, securing only 121 seats in the 650-seat parliament as the party endured its worst-ever election defeat.
Reform UK, led by Eurosceptic politician Nigel Farage, picked up five seats, an unprecedented haul for a British hard-right party, while the Liberal Democrats won 61 more MPs than at the previous election and the Greens quadrupled their representation to four.
Those results mean “fragmentation is baked in” to Thursday’s votes for councils, mayors and a single parliamentary seat, according to political scientist Rob Ford.
“We will see losses from the Tories and Labour, but not equally,” the University of Manchester politics professor told AFP.
A total of 1,641 seats across local authorities are up for grabs on Thursday — only a fraction of England’s 17,000 councillors — as are six mayoral posts and a parliamentary seat in the northwest English area of Runcorn and Helsby.
– Squeezed on both sides –
Farage’s party is the bookmakers’ favourite to win the parliamentary by-election.
Labour has faced criticism over welfare cuts and tax rises during a difficult return to power following 14 years in opposition, while Starmer’s popularity has tanked in opinion polls.
Labour won Runcorn by a 53-percent last year, while Reform got just 18 percent, but Starmer has acknowledged this time around it will be a “tough” fight.
On Tuesday, Reform UK, which has vowed to “stop the boats”, topped a YouGov poll of national voting intentions in Britain with 26 percent, three points ahead of Labour and six up on the Conservatives.
Victory in Runcorn, winning mayoralties like Greater Lincolnshire and gaining hundreds of councillors would help Reform build its grassroots activism before the next general election — likely in 2029.
Polls were due to close at 10:00 pm (2100 GMT), with results set to trickle in from early Friday.
Under threat from Reform on the right, the Tories are also being squeezed on the left by the Liberal Democrats, the traditional third party, eyeing gains in the wealthy south.
As Labour edges rightwards it is facing a growing challenge from the Greens on the left.
“For the big parties, it’s like the couple who are having to wrestle with the duvet that’s too small,” said Ford. “Wherever they pull the duvet, they’re going to get exposed somewhere.”
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